Acorn A5000, Welcome Manual

Page: 41 / 114

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 31 tells you which
discs to ask for. Before you use them, you'll have to format them (see Formatting a
floppy disc on page 32).
You put the discs into the floppy disc drive (see Inserting and ejecting floppy discs
on page 30). The drive can only take one disc at a time.
Hard discs
A hard disc is fitted to some computers. The amber light on the front panel of the
computer will come on when.the hard disc is active.
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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