Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
Hi,
I remember working for a small company that installed and maintained
networks using Windows for Workgroups 3.11. The workstation computers did
not have a hard drive, but booted from a floppy disk that enable the
computer to connect to a server to download and run the O/S and other
programs from. The PC just had the FDD no HDD at all. The floppy disk had
the autoexec.bat, config.sys and all other necessary drivers, especially the
ethernet drivers (back then we were using Lantastic). The PC would boot
from the floppy, connect to the server then download the necessary files and
programs to the PC`s RAM to operate.
Jeff
"Colin Barnhorst" <colinbarharst(nojunk)@msn.com> wrote in message
news:etVWoA9EFHA.3512@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> If I remember right, the IBM 5150 first shipped with only a jack for a
> cassette recorder at the base price. It booted to the Basic prompt. The
> 5.25 drive was extra. I never saw one without a floppy and the cassette
> recorder idea never caught on.
>
> I used 8" diskettes on a dedicated word processor in the late 70's and had
> to pay around $10 apiece. When I first taught Basic as a middle school
> math teacher (1969), we accessed a time-sharing mainframe with a teletype
> machine and saved the programs to paper tape.
>
> In high school in the 50's we computed ballistics problems with rubber
> bands and paper clips.
>
> --
> Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
> (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
> "Ian Hoare" <ianhoare@angelfire.com> wrote in message
> news:7e6511pdjpndr6miiq07vjoqhvbmf65d96@4ax.com...
>> Salut/Hi R. C. White,
>>
>> le/on Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:08:30 -0600, tu disais/you said:-
>>
>>>Hi, Ian.
>>>
>>>>>A PC without a disk drive? I've never heard of such a computer!
>>>>
>>>> I've had several.
>>>>
>>>> Sinclair ZX80
>>><snip list>
>>>
>>>Yeah, I heard of those - in addition to my own TRS=80s. But those were
>>>when
>>>we still called them "microcomputers" or a variety of other names. As I
>>>recall, we didn't call them PCs until IBM introduced its Personal
>>>Computer
>>>in 1981 - and it always had a floppy disk drive.
>>
>> Good point. I'd sort of not noticed your "PC" restriction. So strike the
>> Sinclairs which were never called PCs. The Amstrads were on the other
>> hand,
>> The CPC 464 was the "Colour Personal Computer" model 4 with 64k of RAM.
>> My
>> 6128 did have a single 3" floppy drive and 128k of RAM.
>>
>>>I can imagine a workstation, attached to a network, which might not need
>>>a
>>>disk drive of any kind, but I've never had anything but a standalone
>>>computer. "PC", it seems to me, implies standalone capability, even if
>>>it
>>>can connect to a network.
>>
>> I wouldn't want to go to the wall over this, but in those days quite a
>> lot
>> of data was stored on little tape cassettes, and paper tape drives were
>> used
>> too. I THINK the earliest IBM PCs had 5.25" floppy drives (truly floppy
>> by
>> the way). At the time, the debate was over whether CPM or MSDOS would
>> prevail. MSDOS stood for Microsoft Disc Operating System, so it's logical
>> that even from its earliest day the IMB PC was conceived of as using
>> floppies.
>>>
>>>I like USB and don't dispute its utility. But booting from USB is a new
>>>idea to me, so I'm learning from this thread. ;<)
>>
>> I've seen some discussions of the possibility and I can well imagine
>> quite a
>> number of possible other circumstances when the ability to boot from a
>> removable drive might be useful. For example, one could imagine having a
>> second operating system on a plug in drive and that could be kept
>> entirely
>> separate. One could even conceive of someone who kept XP on one USB drive
>> and Linux or Unix on another, keeping nothing but encrypted data on the
>> main
>> computer hard drive. That would be extraordinarily secure, if you think
>> about it, as without having access to the appropriate OS, you couldn't
>> even
>> _begin_ to know how to approach data decryption. For example, a Truecrypt
>> encrypted drive looks and feels like an unformatted drive. It can only be
>> unlocked with a running version of the software and the right password.
>> Of
>> course, it goes without saying that such a thing would be very unpopular
>> with Law enforcement agencies, as it would be impossible to prove that
>> the
>> hard drive WAS an encrypted drive.
>> --
>> All the Best
>> Ian Hoare
>>
http://www.souvigne.com
>> mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website
>
>
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