American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

When I am travelling I usually take my laptop with all the games I need and a 3.5" disk with which I then transfer game turns from a computer with internet access to my laptop and back to return them after I played them. (That way I get around all the trouble with a modem and getting internet access in unknown places.)

However, lately I find that it no longer works. Increasingly, one of the two computers seems to refuse to read the files from the disk. There is no pattern to it; sometimes the other computer will write, but my laptop not read, sometimes it's the other way round. And sometimes when that happens my laptop starts hanging and rebooting, very annoying.

Fortunately I also have an external HD with me so I can get around it, but it's rather a nuisance. A disk is so much easier to use.

Any ideas?

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS

I had the same problem a number of years ago and what I was told was that as machines age the read/write heads go out of alignment such that the transcription to the disk is slightly off, particularly if the machines are moved a lot (eg a laptop).

While still functional, you can get a situation where the sum of the misalignment between 2 machines is sufficient such that they are incompatible even though either may be read by a third machine.

I was inclined to believe this as the machines I had could not read each others disks, but disks from either could be read by several other machines.

Maj Gen Mike Kaulbars
3rd "Freiheit" Division
VIII/AoS

Doesn't sound too good.

Another dumb question: now I am using my external HD to transfer the files between the two computers. It uses two USB ports for contact (one for data, one for power supply, I understand). When I plug it in on my home computer or laptop, I get a little icon in the task bar (bottom of the screen, Win XP or W2K), with a cute green arrow, that states I must use it to safely disconnect the HD. However, on this here machine (Win XP too), there is no such icon.

Can I safely unplug the external HD without using this feature? Or where can I find it if it isn't there on the task bar?

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br />Doesn't sound too good.

Another dumb question: now I am using my external HD to transfer the files between the two computers. It uses two USB ports for contact (one for data, one for power supply, I understand). When I plug it in on my home computer or laptop, I get a little icon in the task bar (bottom of the screen, Win XP or W2K), with a cute green arrow, that states I must use it to safely disconnect the HD. However, on this here machine (Win XP too), there is no such icon.

Can I safely unplug the external HD without using this feature? Or where can I find it if it isn't there on the task bar?

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS


<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I use external HD's and USB key drives. On my laptop, I get the icon to disconnect and use that before I move the drive. On my desktop, I can remove and plug in key drives or HD's and there is no icon and no problems with disconnecting the drives.

My laptop is WINXP home and my desktop is WINXP Pro.

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
LtGen, CO XXIII Corps, AoO

ACWGC Cabinet member
</b></font id="gold">

Dierk,

Try purchasing an USB flash drive for the files. You can get them inexpensively and they're quite easy to use. Floppy's are such ancient technology, lol. [:p]

Maj.Gen. Mike Smith
Army of Georgia
[url="http://convolutedmuse.blogspot.com//"]Convoluted Muse[/url]

What's a flash drive?

The good thing about a floppy disk is that every computer has a drive for it and it doesn't depend on USB ports that can be scarce and used by other peripherals.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS

Actually, 3.5 inch drives are a thing of the past. My laptop doesn't even have one, but it has 4 USB ports (I think most new desktops come with 6). I use my laptops for PowerPoint presentations all the time. I often use a flash drive to move the PowerPoints from my desktop to my laptop (and from Mac to PC to boot!). My Flash Drive is 516 MB, so that's a lot of PowerPoints. The Flash Drive itself is a small stick about the size of your thumb. No moving parts so they are nearly indestructible.



Col. Randy Hartwig
1/IX/AoO, USA

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by D.S. Walter</i>
<br />What's a flash drive?

The good thing about a floppy disk is that every computer has a drive for it and it doesn't depend on USB ports that can be scarce and used by other peripherals.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS


<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Flash drive/thumb drive, any of the USB drives. You might not be familar with the name, but I am sure you know the units.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash.ars/1

Also, get an inexpensive 4 port USB 2.0 hub. There are many out there and they run from $20 to $40 (USD) and that can extend any USB ports for other uses. The hubs are almost a necessity for a laptop and they store easily. I have one for my laptop that is the size of a cigarette lighter.

As the flash drives come in anything from 64 Mb to 1 or 2 Gb, they are hugely better than a floppy, IMO.

<b><font color="gold">Ernie Sands
LtGen, CO XXIII Corps, AoO

ACWGC Cabinet member
</b></font id="gold">

.

Ah, yes ... they're called "USB Sticks" in Germany. I think I'll get one now; always thought I should.

Well, thanks everybody for their comments. Helpful as always.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS

Dierk,

I've been experimenting with an MP3 player - I have one with a 40GB HD, so I can copy all the games on to it (it basically can act as external harddrive), and they seem to play without any problem on any machine (I haven't played enough with it to guarantee that!) I need a USB cable for connecting from the pc to the MP3 player but that's small/light and also acts as a recharger for the player.


Lt. Gen Niall Murphy
4/2/VIII Corps, AoS

OK problem solved. I got me a USB flash drive for less than £ 10, it's the size of a very small finger and holds 128 MB. Works smoothly now, almost as easy as a disk (the computer still runs a hardware recognition routine each time I plug it in, that's the only bother).

Thanks for the suggestion.

Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS