1. My friend has a 1.44" floppy drive that won't read or format disc. Whenever he tries to read what is on a disk or tries to format a disk the computer tells him that the floppy disk is bad or the drive is not connected but it must be connected because the light comes on and I hear the disc being read. I think the floppy drive has just gone out on his computer and since they are rather inexpensive I thought I would just replace the drive and see if that fixes the problem. Is that a good idea or anybody have a better one? 2. Also, he has a HP and it looks as if the button where you eject floppy disks at on the floppy drive I have won't fit through the hole wher his current one is, is there anyway to fix this or make it adjust? Do I have to purchase one that will fit this certain HP model? 3. I have Microsoft Office XP. Do you have to buy a special version of Office for a laptop/notebook or could I just use the one that I currently have? 4. What's the easiest and most inexpensive way to hook up two computers and share files?
Oh yeah, in reference to number 2 what I cannot figure out is the case. The HP case is shaped so that only a slot is visible and not a full drive face so do I have to buy a specific HP floppy disk drive or will any floppy drive do? If any floppy will do then do I need to make a modification to the PC case?
Umm, I don't think anybody can answer that for you, especially by just reading your post. You need to know the model, perhaps it is built so you can only use their kinds of drives. Is is a desktop? try using the FAQS from the HP website. http://www.hp.com
#3. Office will work on anything. MS Office is not computer specific, that is, it does not matter if it is on a Desktop or Laptop. #4. easiest and cheapest way to hook up computers would be with a parallel cable, although that would not be fast at all. Your best bet would be to hook it up to a LAN. Or just swap the files through a sharring network (Kazza). burn the files on cd,.....etc.
I'd suggest buying a couple of network cards (if the two machines don't already have them), and a cross-over cable. Then just network them together. Way faster than any of the other methods.
I would just replace the drive. It only costs a few bucks. I too have cases that don't fit peripherals very well. Any floppy drive will work but of course if it does not fit, or if you can not get to the ejection button then it is useless. I would take the computer into the store like CompUSA and ask the saleperson to get me one that fits. Same one. Easiest solution: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50040954&pfp=SEARCH
With regards to the Office XP question are you asking if you can "legally" use it on two computers with one of them being your laptop? If you are asking about the legality, click on Help in one of the programs (Word, Excel, etc.). Click on 'about'. Click on 'view license agreement'. Read the agreement. Sometimes, software manufacturers legally allow you to have one copy on a desk top and one on a laptop. The other concern is that you have to 'activate' the software. If it is already activated on your desktop AND you are not allowed more than one copy on one computer, it may not activate on your laptop.
Well it's an academic version of the product so it's been loaded on a couple thousand computers. I was just wondering if the laptop would require a different version or something like that.
For just two computers, both with Ethernet cards, you could hook them up directly with a single network cable, but it's a specific type of cable that allows information flow in both direction from both computers simultaneously, or something like that, that would likely be the fastest... I belive it's called a cross over cable or something to that extent... Ah, here, I do belive this is the one I have that I used to transfer data between two comps... http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&qp=0&bookmark=bookmark_0&oid=24463&catoid=-8750
that is by far the best method, but by the way lil pun has written his questions out, I don't know if he knows how to cross over the cable.
Well it seemed simple until you posted this. I figured that the name of the cable was a cross over cable and that was it but now you've said that I actually have to cross over two cables so which is it? Here are two more questions: I have a 1.44" floppy drive and I have no software for it. If I install it into a computer will it still work? My girlfriend's mouse went out on her last night in the middle of typing a paper. She replaced the mouse with another one and now her pointer/arrow is going crazy. What can be done so that she can use a new mouse and save her paper?
For x-sake, if u have limited knowledge on computer, just go with the out-of-the-box solution I gave ealier and stop worrying about doing it the pro-way! No need for extra software/ driver for floppy drive. The Operating system (XP or whatever) already has drivers for the basic hardwares: floppy drive, hard drive ... Depends on the word processing software she is using, she can use the keyboard for some functions. (assuming her program still has the mouse focus/ control of the keyboard) For Microsoft Word: Alt-F brings up the File and Save As menu. Alt-A brings up the Save As dialog, Key in a file name, Alt-S Saves the file. (during the above process, if u hit the wrong key, hit Esc to start over) After that, reboot the computer, it will pick up the new mouse when it comes back up.
It is a single cable, called a crossover cable. You'd need to set up the IP addresses appropriately on each machine. Machine 1 IP 192.168.0.1 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 Machine 2 IP 192.168.0.2 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 These should work fine. Then you need to set up a share on one of the machines, and connect to it from the other. The method for doing this varies slightly from OS to OS. You'd need to be more specific, and I'm sure someone here could help (I'm a Mac person, I don't have ready access to a PC to get the steps to do this exactly right).
