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Does anyone here have a "b:" Drive or will we ever use B: drive again?

T

Train

Lifer
I was just wondering, since B: drive was the 5 1/2 inch floppies back in the day (last time I saw one was on an early 286)

Why do we still use the same Drive structure? Floppie A: then Hard Drive C: ?

Shouldnt our hard drive become B: on an OS install, then CD rom C: and so on?
 
if we did that, we wouldn't be able to use the pun c:\dos\run anymore 🙁

although I don't think anyone has a dos directory anyhow

*cough*

</end useless post>
 
or we can just do it the way unixes have done it and have the partitions/drives be mounted at certain locations
 
I actually still have a machine (Athlon 900) that I built with a 5¼ floppy in it as I still have people ask me 2-3 times a year to convert 5¼ floppies to 3½ floppies. People running Win98 can still run many DOS apps. I get reasons like: just for fun, I really liked that app, I knew how to use it without being confused, I found some stuff that I forgot I had and would like to use/see it.
 
I remember a couple years ago fumbling through old software and games or something and finding F-15 Strike Eagle III (I think) but it was on 5 1/4's. This made me sad.
 
Originally posted by: Fox2k
if we did that, we wouldn't be able to use the pun c:\dos\run anymore 🙁

although I don't think anyone has a dos directory anyhow

*cough*

</end useless post>
Click to expand...
LOL!

I still have a 51/4" in a 486 system, nothing since then though.
 
hehe, I have a 3.5/5.25 "combo" drive on my main system! I still use both but my supply of 5.25 floppys is starting to run dry! 🙁
 
I have both A and B drives in two systems. A is a standard 3.5 floppy, and B is a LS-240 drive. Those who use Zip drives m,ay also have them listed as B.
 
The B drive doesn't necessarily have to be 5 1/4 disks... it can be any removeable media, including a 2nd 3.5 drive or a zip drive.
 
my sister has a 5 1/4" drive in her duron 700Mhz system... this system has grown from a 386 SX-20 AMstrad system and just been recycled time and time again into every upgraded system 🙂

don't know when she used it last but she has a heap of old software on those old floppy disks. 😉
 
I haven't had use for a B: drive in many years, but I still can't imagine having a computer without a floppy drive. It's still the most ubiquitous storage medium around, you can always use it to boot up when needed, sometimes you *still* MUST have it, for example, if you wish to install XP with "non standard" SCSI or RAID support, XP requires a 3 1/2 disk with the drivers early in the installation. Even if for the simple fact that someone might drop by and say "can you print this word doc for me, it's on this floppy" every now and again. For the extra $10 that it costs to put it in the machine, why would you not add it?

 
Some people seem to think it gives them bragging rights if they don't have a floppy drive in their system. They need a life. 🙁
 
Originally posted by: Moralpanic
The B drive doesn't necessarily have to be 5 1/4 disks... it can be any removeable media, including a 2nd 3.5 drive or a zip drive.
Click to expand...

Yup, I have a B:\ drive but it's not a floppy but instead a RAM drive.
 
Originally posted by: Doomer
Some people seem to think it gives them bragging rights if they don't have a floppy drive in their system. They need a life. 🙁
Click to expand...
Hear, hear! Some of us are long-time PC users and have software and data from when we got started in the XT era. I have all my old software, games, music and stuff from my Tandy 1000 days and I occasionally pop them in.
I currently do not have my 5.25" drive active though... the only low-end machine I have is a P100 for "oldskool" and it's only got one 5.25" drive bay which leaves me with the choice, CD-ROM or 5.25" floppy... I chose CD-ROM. 😉

BUT, one of these days I'll swap them for a full day/weekend of copying ALL those old floppies onto the hard drive, then bump 'em onto CD-R. From then on, I shouldn't need 5.25" ever again. Maybe. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Train
I was just wondering, since B: drive was the 5 1/2 inch floppies back in the day (last time I saw one was on an early 286)

Why do we still use the same Drive structure? Floppie A: then Hard Drive C: ?

Shouldnt our hard drive become B: on an OS install, then CD rom C: and so on?
Click to expand...


For the most part, I think 5.25" floppy drive were last included in desktop systems around the 486 and Pentium-60 era. (early 1990's) In the 286/386 era, often the 5.25" was the A: and the 3.5" was the B:. Of course you could just switch the cable around to swap the drive designation.
 
Originally posted by: Moralpanic
The B drive doesn't necessarily have to be 5 1/4 disks... it can be any removeable media, including a 2nd 3.5 drive or a zip drive.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's me. B: is a zip drive.
 
Windows Server 2003 lets you mount your hard drives to B:, although I think the system drive needs to stay c:.
 
If you make a bootable CD, the virtual boot disk that the CD runs on is A:\ moving your 1.44 floppy to B:\.

It ain't broke so it don't need fixing. When we start running out of network drive letters, then this will become an issue.
 
I actually have a computer that I have a 5.25-in floppy in, that I put in just for fun. 😱 Apart from that, I map a network drive to B:, which windows XP (I think 2000 too)allows.
 
honest to god, I've never had a B drive.... back when I got my 286 BRAND new back in like 1990 it only had a 3.5" floppy. (it was state of the art)
 
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