Looking after floppy discs
Since floppy discs use magnetism, anything which has an effect on magnetism can have an
effect on floppy discs (which can lead to loss or corruption of data). Keep your floppy discs
away from excessive heat or cold, strong sunlight, magnetic fields (there is a magnet inside
your computer monitor), and keep them free from dust. If your floppy discs do gather dust
or dirt, it can be transferred onto the heads inside the floppy disc drive mechanism and cause
failure unless cleaned. If a floppy disc becomes damaged (for example the shutter might get
bent out of shape) discard it - otherwise it could cause damage to your disc drive.
Accessing information on discs
On the left-hand side of the Icon Bar you will see the floppy disc drive icon. When a floppy
disc is properly inserted into the drive, click SELECT on the floppy disc drive icon to open a
filer directory window showing the content of that floppy disc. You can access the
information stored on a floppy disc in just the same way as you would access information
from the hard disc (or any filer directory window relating to other storage devices) Files can
be saved or copied to floppy disc (or deleted) and directory structures can be created,
deleted, or moved in the usual way.
Write-protecting a floppy disc
Every floppy disc has a small almost-square hole in the hard plastic casing which you can
see right through (on a High-Density floppy disc there are two holes: one is for 'write-
protecting' the information and the other is to identify to the computer that it is a high-
density disc rather than low-density).
On the underside of the floppy disc you will see a small, plastic tab which can slide back or
forth to cover the write-protect hole or allow you to see through it. This tab clicks into
position leaving the hole either open or closed (and the floppy disc either protected or
unprotected respectively). It should not be left loose midway.
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