Acorn A3010, Welcome Manual

Page: 39 / 120

Discs and disc drives
T
his chapter tells you how to use and take care of your discs
and disc drives, and how to format and make backup copies of discs.
Floppy discs and hard discs
You store information and programs on hard or floppy discs.
Floppy discs
Your computer uses 3.5 inch floppy discs. They look like this:
A number of floppy discs are supplied with your computer, containing useful programs.
You will also need some blank floppy discs, to save work of your own. You can obtain
these from your computer supplier. Floppy disc storage sizes on page 29 tells you
which discs to ask for. Before you use them, you'll have to format them (see
Formatting a floppy disc on page 30).
You put the discs into the floppy disc drive (see Inserting and ejecting floppy discs
on page 28). The drive can only take one disc at a time.
Hard discs
A hard disc can be fitted to your computer.
Hard discs are much faster and hold a lot more information than a floppy disc. They
are built into the computer, so you don't have to put in and take out any discs.
If a hard disc is fitted to your computer, its icon will be present on the lefthand side of
the icon bar.
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