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Monday, August 07, 2006

The mystery of the missing B

Ever wondered where is the B drive on your Windows PC? I had once thought about it, but didn't go hunting to know where. Now Anthony digs out the answer:

The answer goes back to the glory days of floppy discs and DOS. The early DOS operating system designated two drives, A and B, strictly for floppy drives. Why? Because many early computers didn't have native hard drives - they booted from Drive A, and ran applications from Drive B.

Later, as computers came with hard drives, the second floppy drive became a useless appendage - the computer equivalent of an appendix. To avoid confusion during the evolutionary window when computers with new hard drives coexisted beside computers with two floppies, the hard drives were given the "C" slot.

Technically speaking, the "computer" isn't missing the B drive, it's just that later Microsoft operating systems have omitted it as unnecessary. You can read more about the ins and outs of archaic drive systems at Microsoft Support.

5 Comments:

DJK said...

Haven't you seen a big slot similar to that of a floppy drive in your pre-historic PC? I used to have one. And there used to be floppy disks almost as big as CDs.

dwaipayan said...

well..I have already read about it from anthony's blog. expect something a bit more original from you

Pallavi said...

:)

feddabonn said...

two possible answers to your question.

1) you're the soumya i knew in st. eddie's. if so, god, you look different. which, actually should not be too surprising, considering i look different too.

2) i haven't the FAINTEST bloody clue.

if 1 is true, hey! how ARE you doing. if 2 is true, hey! how ARE you doing.

Soumyadip said...

djk Yup. But those were the days when I was in school and computer classes were meant for senior students only. By the time our turn came, the floppies had already shrunk.

Dwaipayan Then read my blog first, it will look original.

Pallavi :)

Featherbone I'm fine (in response to both 1 and 2).