[paulthomasno6]

Before I bought my desktop I was using electronic typewriters, the last being a Canon Starwriter 300. Loading and storing info on floppy disks with these machines was a pretty slow process. The new toy does the job in a couple of seconds. But it also has more hassles with the disks. I store info on two disks, and when I insert the second disk to save, I often get an error message. Normally I can get around this by hitting the 'Continue' button twice, but it's a pain all the same.
Obviously the technology has advanced since the Canon was manufactured. Still I wouldn't mind if the disks were processed more slowly if that meant fewer problems. Is it possible to reset the drive so that it runs at a slower pace? Or should I be looking at some other data storage alternative?

[jephree]

I can find no info on that Canon device. Are you using this device or was that just a side note of the past? It was a typewriter/word processor that had a floppy drive?

Are you saying now that you are having problems saving to floppies on your PC?

What are the verbatim error messages that you receive?

Are you using 1.44MB (high-density) floppies? Or?

A CD Writer would be your best bet for files over 1.44MB but floppies are still fine for small files.

It sounds like your errors are in spanning two floppies. Is this correct?

[paulthomasno6]

Thanks for the speedy answer, Jephree. The Canon Starwriter was as you guess a typrewriter/wp with floppy disk drive. Nowadays I'm on an Acer Veriton 3600GT.
I've just tried to reproduce the error several times, but naturally, everything is working OK now! Bloody technology - as far as I can recall the message says something like 'Wrong volume has been opened' and offers three options: Cancel, Try Again, Continue. Clicking twice on Continue cancels the error message is the save completes.
The bulk of what I save is simple text and unless the machine starts chewing up every disk I put in I'd rather stick with floppies. I'm not sure what 'spanning' means.

[jephree]

By spanning I meant if you had more than 1.44MB of data to save to a floppy you would need to span two floppies. With CD's you need 3rd party software to do this. I am not sure how floppies handle this.

I know if you download a file larger that 1.44MB (such as Boot Disks) the download usually tells you when to insert floppy #2 etc.

Verbatim error messages are usually easy to trace. Just put the message into a Google Search.

Anyway glad it is working as of now. Let us know if we can help further in the future!

[paulthomasno6]

Jephree, had a recurrence this morning, the message that comes up is "Windows - Wrong Volume." I entered this on the Help and Support site, but none of the 15 possibilities it offered appear to be connected to floppies.
In the meantime I've got myself a 512mb flash drive. This thing fascinates me. It's the size of a cigarette lighter and it can hold as much data as about 490 disks. How does it work?

[DJNafey]

It's magic Paul

Actually, I can't really describe how it works but it's the same kind of technology you'll find in memory cards inside mobile phones and digital cameras I suppose. USB flash drives are one of the real success stories of recent years and are growing in popularity through everyone that owns one recommending them to someone else. The bigger sizes (e.g. 512MB), in particular, are truly brilliant - working as an IT guy, transferring data between laptops and PCs that don't have floppy drives or network connections has never been so easy!!

[paulthomasno6]

You'd think that someone with an abmormal mind could figure for himself that magic was involved.

[jephree]

Jephree, had a recurrence this morning, the message that comes up is "Windows - Wrong Volume." I entered this on the Help and Support site, but none of the 15 possibilities it offered appear to be connected to floppies.
In the meantime I've got myself a 512mb flash drive. This thing fascinates me. It's the size of a cigarette lighter and it can hold as much data as about 490 disks. How does it work?

Just as a quick search this error also appears to deal with spanning (multiple) disks.

Here is a basic search: http://groups.google.com/groups?sour...22&sa=N&tab=wg

[paulthomasno6]

Nice detective work Jephree.
Funny how I'm getting a message when I'm saving data that other people get when they're downloading it!
Incidentally, I don't have any files so large that I have to span. Not yet, anyway.
Thanks to one and all.

[Johnbooks]

I have a lot of data stored on 1MB floppy disks formatted by a Canon StarWriter. My problem is that I need 720KB floppy disks to convert the files to text (.txt) files which my PCs can read.

My problem is that my stationer is having difficulty finding 720KB floppies. I don't think they are being made any more.

I have some 720KB floppy disks but some have worn out.

Does anyone know of another and preferably quicker way of copying across hundreds of
small files to a PC from a Canon StarWriter?

I have a cable with two oblong shaped plugs on it. One of them fits into one of my Canon
StarWriters. If I could find an adaptor, could the files be copied using a USB connection?

johnosborne@bexley.prestel.co.uk