Word freezes when saving to floppy

[Michelle]

I work for a public library and we offer word processing to the public. The
computer is locked down with group policies as well as a 3rd party software.
I just upgraded our Office software from 97 to 2003. Now, after saving in
Word 2 or 3 times, the machine locks up while saving and the machine has to
be rebooted. Our public users must use a floppy to save to as we do not
allow saving to our hard disk. This means that they have now lost all of
their work. I have disabled/removed any security such as the 3rd party
software and Group Policies and it still does it. I have also looked for
possible solutions on the Microsoft website and newsgroups. The closest I
have found was this - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313937 and it
doesn't apply as there are no mapped drives online. The public user does not
have access to any network drives through permissions, but they are there.
Would this be the same thing? Any assistance would be appreciated as we have
some very unhappy users.

 

[Margaret Aldis]

It's never really safe to save to floppy - best advice is not to do it at
all, or if you must use the setting to save temporary files on the local
hard disk
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;277010&FR=1)

That said, there have been 2 or 3 posts in this group reporting a complete
lock-up when saving to floppy as a possible new occurrence related to a
recent patch.

 

[Michelle]

Hi Margaret,

I agree about the floppies. I would prefer not to, but most of the people
that use public workstations cannot afford USB drives or other media and the
staff can't spend time troubleshooting CD-R/RW problems. So for now, it
seems that floppies are our only solution.

Thanks for the bug information. I missed the earlier posts since they were
about other versions. I had just applied the Windows 2000 rollout to all of
my public workstations on July 1, so that seems to be it! Thanks, I've been
looking for an answer to this since then. Everything seems to be working
well now, but I will post an update if the problem reoccurs.

How do we report this bug to Microsoft and then how do we know when it is
fixed?

Michelle

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Could you allow saving to a single folder on the hard disk and have your
log-in procedure empty that folder? When Word writes to a floppy you can end
up with (1) the document on the floppy, (2) an unreadable document on the
floppy, or (3) an erased or corrupt floppy.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Beth Melton]

FWIW, these days you can pick up a 128 MB USB drive for about $20 US.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Michelle]

Hi Charles,

That's a possibility, but most people require a saved copy of their document
that they can take away with them. It's not only resumes, but homework
assignments and letters. I know floppies are not dependable and we often
have patrons that lose their files because of a bad floppy. Could anyone
point me in the direction of some documentation on floppies that supports
this? I'd like to share it with patrons and staff.

Thanks!

Michelle

 

[Charles Kenyon]

You have them save to the hard drive and then from Explorer copy from the
hard drive to the floppy. This avoids the problems with Word wrecking files
on the floppy.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Margaret,

If you're using Windows 2000 then this may be
a bug in the SP4 'rollup' update that breaks
the use of working with a diskette drive.

If you phone your local MS Windows (rather than Office)
support number (http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=1131)
you can obtain a 'hotfix' (no charge) that should solve the problem.

==============Hi Margaret,

I agree about the floppies. I would prefer not to, but most of the people
that use public workstations cannot afford USB drives or other media and the
staff can't spend time troubleshooting CD-R/RW problems. So for now, it
seems that floppies are our only solution.

Thanks for the bug information. I missed the earlier posts since they were
about other versions. I had just applied the Windows 2000 rollout to all of
my public workstations on July 1, so that seems to be it! Thanks, I've been
looking for an answer to this since then. Everything seems to be working
well now, but I will post an update if the problem reoccurs.

How do we report this bug to Microsoft and then how do we know when it is
fixed?

Michelle <<
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To add to what Bob has said, the following information has been posted
elsewhere:

PC Review - KB891861 - Update rollup 1 for 2000 service pack 4
(specifically fastfat.sys) breaks ability to save Office docs to
floppy#post6423226:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=6423226#post6423226

You will be able to contact Microsoft Technical Support and easily open a
non-fee support incident and request the hotfix from KB article 904368. Note
that the article 904368 has not yet been published.

 

[JohnR]

I quite often save to a floppy in Both Word 2000 & Word 2003. I have never
had a corrupted file on these media. Am I doing something wrong ????
John

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, you've just been very lucky. And you must not be using Windows 2000.

 

[JohnR]

No, I guess I was Lucky. Went from ME --> XP Home

 

[tweetyhack]

Thanks. I'm have the same problem and worked on it the whole morning.