Floppy Disk User Problems
Back when floppy disks were the only portable medium (good old 5 1/4 and
3.5 inch disks hold not much more than a mere 360K), I was working as a field
engineer for a third-party support firm. Remembering two calls always brings a
smile to my face.
Caller #1: A guy rings up and says that he has just
received his new update on four 3.5 inch floppy disks and he followed the
instructions supplied with the update to the letter. He had a problem with the
machine reading the second disk, just would not accept it. After a few probing
questions, a site visit was required, so I attended the next day and was amazed
by what I saw. Yes, the guy obviously had a problem reading the second disk
after following the installation instructions:
1. Insert
disk 1.
2. Run setup, click OK when asked.
3. When asked, insert disk 2.
What I found was that he had not removed the first disk and had actually
managed to get both disks into the floppy drive AT THE SAME TIME. Ooops.
Caller #2:
Me: Hello, Tech Support.
Caller: Hello yes, I
received this update from you for my new PC, but it cannot read any of the
floppy disks you sent me.
Me: Hmm. Can you
please explain what's happening?
Caller: OK, I opened
the box and read the instructions telling me to put in disk 1 and run setup.
Me: Good; next?
Caller: So I got the
disks out the box and put the first disk into the drive after removing the
protective cover.
Me: Protective cover?
Do you mean the little white sleeve that the disk comes in?
Caller: No the big
black cover that the disk comes in. Is it supposed to be that hard to get the
disk out?
At this point I
fell off my chair, only just managing to put the caller on hold before breaking
out in a laughter fit. When I attended his home, he had not only managed to
take out the disk from inside the disk casing, he had actually managed to get
it lodged into the drive and then broke the heads of the drive when he tried to
get it out.
Thank you Darkside for those contributions
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