If it don't fit...
Back in the early '90s, I was the PC support person for a tire
manufacturing plant. Most of the computers had dual floppy drives (5 1/4 &
3.5), but there were some old clunkers (IBM PCs) with only 5 1/4, as well as
some state-of-the-art 286 Compaqs with only a 3.5" drive. It is latter
that this story is about.
I got a call from a summer engineering student that her disk had gotten
stuck in the drive. When I got to the computer I found that she had her work on
a 5 1/4" floppy. She was trying to load this work on one of these new
Compaqs. The disk was too big, so she decided that, since the material that the
floppy is made from is the same, if she were to fold her large floppy in
quarters to make it fit the drive then the drive would still read it. Thing is,
this person was otherwise a very smart, logical person. I also had a fairly
good rapport with her, so I asked her, "How is the drive suppose to spin
the disk if it is folded?" The lights came on, cheeks reddened, and she
made me promise not to tell ANYONE what just happened. I didn't in that job,
but we both had a good laugh.
Thanks to the anonymous support person for that contribution
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