Which microsoft millionaire owns floppy futures?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Smith
  • Start date Start date
J

John Smith

I'm trying to install XP on a SATA RAID shuttle and there's one small
problem. I don't have a floppy. Of all the computers I have in my office
NONE OF THEM HAVE FLOPPIES. I cannot install XP on my shuttle because I DO
NOT HAVE A FLOPPY DRIVE. So what exactly can I store on a floppy? Apparently
device drivers. I guess it's stupid to put them onto something like A CD and
then have the install look at THAT since the computer ACTUALLY HAS A CD
DRIVE. But no, I have to try to FIND A FLOPPY DISK and then TRY TO FIND A
FLOPPY DRIVE THAT WORKS. Oh, there's an old abandon 80386. I think IT has a
floppy. It also has 640K of memory and THERE'S NO WAY ON EARTH ANYONE WOULD
EVER WANT MORE THAN 640K OF MEMORY ON A COMPUTER is there? Oh, the drive
doesn't work because it's clogged with dust since it hasn't been used in 5
YEARS. Ya, we have to install a storage medium that can't even hold one
single WORD DOC in order to install XP. Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

So oh magical Microsoft Millionaires, instead of trying to figure out how to
signal there is a water skier down in Lake Sammamish, or what fabulous
kitchen knobs you absolutely HAVE to have on your fabu remodel, how about if
one of you BRILLIANT GENIUSES figure out how to have the stupid setup
program scan THE CD DRIVE (you know, that drive that actually booted the
machine) along with these magical 'FLOPPIES' that exist next to my 8-track
player.

If "Billy G" had to spend 8 hours trying to figure out how to install XP on
his fabu new laptop I dare say this problem would be fixed right quick. Oh,
that's right. Billy has peons that can do this nonsense for him when some
errant install hoses his boot sector.

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
Actually the drivers needed for SATA or RAID have little to do with
microsoft,the board mfgs and/or who mfg the controller are the ones that
need the drivers,microsoft doesnt build controllers or boards.Hence,youre
blaming the wrong folks.....
 
<quote>
Actually the drivers needed for SATA or RAID have little to do with
microsoft,the board mfgs and/or who mfg the controller are the ones that
need the drivers,microsoft doesnt build controllers or boards.Hence,youre
blaming the wrong folks.....
</quote>

No. You are wrong. Who wrote XP setup? The device manufacturers?

XP setup ONLY reads device drivers from a floppy. This is the either 1) the
device drivers fault, because they could care less what media the driver is
on or 2) Microsoft's fault because their stupid setup program ONLY LOOKS AT
FLOPPY DRIVES FOR THE DRIVERS.

Ya, let's blame the device manufacturers for a problem that manifests itself
ONLY because XP setup's stupid assumption that drivers can ONLY exist on
floppies. Sorry to be so short, but try finding a functioning floppy drive
and floppy disk at 11:30 on a tuesday evening so you can get your computer
back up and running.

This is Microsoft's fault, this is Microsoft's problem, this is Microsoft's
stupidity. Period.

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
Even better. Not only do you have to enable floppy drives in general, you
have to tell the BIOS what size the floppy drive is or it will simply ignore
it for no reason whatsoever. Hardware. Gotta love it. Ya, this isn't totally
Microsoft's fault. Well, unless you factor in the pesky fact that XP setup
REQUIRES a floppy drive if your storage doesn't "conform."

This harkens me back to the glory days of DOS 3.31 when COMPAQ came out with
the magical version of DOS so you could install a drive bigger than 32 meg
on your fancy-dancy 640K computer. Wow. A hard drive bigger than 32 meg? Who
in their wildest dreams would install a hard drive bigger than 32meg on a
computer? Unbelievable. Who could afford such a monster? Who could afford
more than 640K? A Microsoft Millionaire? Imagine the possibilities of a 32
meg hard drive. Imagine a computer with more than 640K of memory. It boggles
the mind. You want TCP/IP on that same computer? Well if you tow the
Microsoft line you will simply have to wait until 1998 until we support that
"flash in the pan" network protocol. No one would possibly outgrow NETBEUI.
Imagine my neuvo riche taste in Normal Rockwell paintings that so poo-poo's
you pathetic morons that actually have to install this operating system and
try to connect it to that fancy-dancy interweb thingy.

So I reiterate. Instead of spending $500,000.00 for some stupid propeller
head to say, "You should move the computer manager from here to here, then
rename it
"magical mystery controller thingy you don't want to play with," then change
all the colors from grey to "tella-tubby purpley blueish," why doesn't
microsoft shift that same sum into funding six man years of development in
bangalore so that the 'setup' program can read a device it has already
booted from - namely the CDROM drive. The ability to do this is less than a
DAYS worth of work. This is much less than they will spend on the next 15
focus groups on whether the paperclip should pop up at THIS point, or at
THAT point. Oh, and what color should that paper clip be these days?

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
Slipstreaming SATA/RAID Drivers
http://greenmachine.msfnhosting.com/READING/addraid.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"John Smith" rambled on:

| I'm trying to install XP on a SATA RAID shuttle and there's one small
| problem. I don't have a floppy. Of all the computers I have in my office
| NONE OF THEM HAVE FLOPPIES. I cannot install XP on my shuttle because I DO
| NOT HAVE A FLOPPY DRIVE. So what exactly can I store on a floppy? Apparently
| device drivers. I guess it's stupid to put them onto something like A CD and
| then have the install look at THAT since the computer ACTUALLY HAS A CD
| DRIVE. But no, I have to try to FIND A FLOPPY DISK and then TRY TO FIND A
| FLOPPY DRIVE THAT WORKS. Oh, there's an old abandon 80386. I think IT has a
| floppy. It also has 640K of memory and THERE'S NO WAY ON EARTH ANYONE WOULD
| EVER WANT MORE THAN 640K OF MEMORY ON A COMPUTER is there? Oh, the drive
| doesn't work because it's clogged with dust since it hasn't been used in 5
| YEARS. Ya, we have to install a storage medium that can't even hold one
| single WORD DOC in order to install XP. Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
|
| So oh magical Microsoft Millionaires, instead of trying to figure out how to
| signal there is a water skier down in Lake Sammamish, or what fabulous
| kitchen knobs you absolutely HAVE to have on your fabu remodel, how about if
| one of you BRILLIANT GENIUSES figure out how to have the stupid setup
| program scan THE CD DRIVE (you know, that drive that actually booted the
| machine) along with these magical 'FLOPPIES' that exist next to my 8-track
| player.
|
| If "Billy G" had to spend 8 hours trying to figure out how to install XP on
| his fabu new laptop I dare say this problem would be fixed right quick. Oh,
| that's right. Billy has peons that can do this nonsense for him when some
| errant install hoses his boot sector.
|
| tima at predator dash software dot com
 
John

Like it or not, Microsoft does not dictate what is included re. hardware
into a computer.. if manufacturers/vendors decide not to include a floppy
drive, that is the manufacturer's/vendors decision entirely..

Microsoft supply an OS, and it is the end user's responsibility to ensure
that there is the means available to install it onto whatever hardware
configuration the end user has chosen..

Find another scapegoat, because your selection for the role is the wrong
one, and complaining to or about Microsoft on this issue will change
nothing..
 
Mario

Slipstreaming can be done on any machine that has the relevant CD creation
software and hardware.. SATA drivers can be downloaded from websites, so the
problem of transferring drivers from diskette to a machine without a floppy
drive is negated..
 
<quote>
Find another scapegoat, because your selection for the role is the wrong
one, and complaining to or about Microsoft on this issue will change
nothing..
</quote>

I'm sure glad you have one of those impressive "MVP" things in your
signature. It doesn't change the fact that Microsoft's XP setup is what is
broken. This is not every single RAID manufacturers problem, and this is not
my problem for not putting an absolutely useless floppy in my computer.
Something that will be used ONCE.

Microsoft wrote XP setup. XP setup REQUIRES A FLOPPY DRIVE in order to load
all but the lamest disk driver. Please explain to me how this is the device
driver writers fault. It's my RAID card manufacturers fault that I have to
install a floppy drive in my computer? It's my RAID card manufacturers fault
that XP setup barfs when there isn't a floppy? It's my RAID card
manufacturers fault that Microsoft is too lazy or incompetent to check BOTH
the floppy AND a possibly swapped in CD for these drivers?

This is simply incompetence on Microsoft's part. For cheaper than the
granite counter top the latest Microsoft exec is going to put in their
vacation home's kitchen this problem could be solved. Microsoft could easily
do this by not only trying to read the floppy but to ALSO read the "magical
spinny thing" that the stupid computer booted on. It apparently can already
read that device without too much difficulty.

This is totally 100% Microsoft's problem. Anyone that states otherwise is
just mind bogglingly stupid.

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
Wow, you must be angry! Because you wasted all that time ranting, as
opposed to simply slipstreaming.

Do you know the steps and processes that need to be taken to fix even
one line of code? What sounds like the logicial solution here:

Leave it. There is a solution available.

-or-

Fix a "problem" for you convenience, pay a software engineer to write
the code, hope not to create more problems, and then distributing.
There is ALOT more money and time wrapped up than you might think.
We're talking about an OS here, not some homebrew software that you got
to work on your buddy's machine. Get off your soapbox. Now proceed to
frantically type for 30 more minutes about how mind boggingly stupid I
am!
 
<quote>
Do you know the steps and processes that need to be taken to fix even one
line of code?
</quote>

I write software to help with my painful addiction to food. I write these
rants to keep from tossing my monitor across the room. When I find obvious
problems with Microsoft products that are trivial to fix, as this one is, I
take great joy in spiking it off of the face of the monolith that is
Microsoft. I am constantly on the receiving end of tirades even more mind
bogglingly stupid than this regarding our own software and the fact it is
incable of reading our end users mind. I take great joy in being on the
giving end of a meaningless rant when so justified.

<quote>
We're talking about an OS here, not some homebrew software that you got to
work on your buddy's machine.
</quote>

No, we are talking probably fifteen lines of ASSEMBLER at the most and those
lines will be mainly user prompts. They simply need to read from a floppy if
it exists or the currently available CD - whose drivers are already loaded
and running. The fix for this isn't rocket science. This is barely an hour
of programming.

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
Or you can spend $20 on an external USB floppy that will work just fine on
most modern motherboards,
no need to get all hyped over something so trivial.

And no you do not need to tell the BIOS about the floppy specs.

Diane
 
I understand the frustration. That's why I've always laughed at all the ppl
who claim you don't need a floppy anymore. Unfortunately, this is the
classic exception -- MS's own OS setup. Yeah, yeah, slipstreaming solves
the problem, but when you consider how many people on these forums can
barely operate their systems, do a basic install, or correctly partition
their HD, well..., the "casualness" with which some ppl suggest
slipstreaming as a solution for the masses is laughable. Com'on folks, get
serious. Yeah, for the geek masses, sure, but this little operation is
asking too much for a lot of users.

OP is correct, it's ridiculous in this day and age that the install does not
at least accept a CD. Good lord, the install itself is on CD! You mean to
tell me MS couldn't have supported w/ trivial effort the ability to load
mass storage devices from CD by the year 2005! This little "enhancement"
could have been coded up and completed by even the worst programmer @ MS
during lunch, with time to spare for actually EATING lunch!

Sorry John, but the truth is, the floppy drive is alive and well, like it or
not. MS should have addressed this floppy dependency a long, long, long
time ago, no excuses.

Jim
 
Like I said, think of this from a business point of view. You simply
CANNOT just write something and throw it out there, no matter how
simple it is. I can guarentee you the floppy would be obselete by the
time all the red tape is cut through. The quality improvment from a
inital cost standpoint is nil.

I'm not sure why you would laugh that I don't own a floppy drive, I
don't use raid and neither does "the masses". The floppy well on it's
way out, to address the issue now would be laughable.
 
<quote>
Or you can spend $20 on an external USB floppy that will work just fine on
most modern motherboards
</quote>

The operative word here is MOST.

<quote>
And no you do not need to tell the BIOS about the floppy specs.
</quote>

I'm glad you are such an expert on my computer's BIOS. Unfortunately in this
instance you are wrong.

This is Microsoft's stupidity, this is Microsoft's fault, and Microsoft
could fix this blazing show of programmer incompetence in less time than the
next staff meeting on what color scheme the VISTA logo is going to contain.

tima at predator dash software dot com
 
John said:
<quote>
We're talking about an OS here, not some homebrew software that you
got to work on your buddy's machine.
</quote>

No, we are talking probably fifteen lines of ASSEMBLER at the most
and those lines will be mainly user prompts. They simply need to
read from a floppy if it exists or the currently available CD -
whose drivers are already loaded and running. The fix for this
isn't rocket science. This is barely an hour of programming.
Click to expand...

Write it.
Send it in.
Post it here.
Make it so we can slipstream that into our CDs.
 
By this time Intel has released new mainboards (with D3xxx chipset) that do
no longer support floppy drives (diskette stations). Intel however still
provides drivers for RAID on a diskette.

Microsoft's XP Setup (F6 for extra drivers) explicitely uses drive "A:" and
no other media drives! That also applies to Vista Setup@
Microsoft's support operators asked about a solution for this prehistoric
drive problem clam up and don't understand the problem ("so you have a
computer with only diskette drvies?").

Anyone able to explain how to get SETUP to look at another drive (CD/DVD)
for installing those drivers?

Welmoed.
 
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