TECH: floppy disc help

[Holly Tesar <dsh000@MAIL.CONNECT.MORE.NET>]

Can anyone explain the ins and outs of a floppy disc?  We have a computer
lab in the library and constantly have problems with students not being
able to open a file from their discs.  These are files created in a Windows
lab using Word 95.
Some of the things I don't understand:

(1) What are the temp files that are created when using Word and how do
they affect the disc?
(2) What's the deal with the auto save and should it be turned on or off?
(3) What does "hot swap" mean--is it when students switch discs back and
forth and save on the same disc from different computers?

Some of the Word files on a particular disc will not open.  Other Word
files on the same disc will open, so I know the disc itself is not
corrupted.  Some of the files that will not open show so many KB when I
look at the properties of the file and it looks like the file is present on
the disc, but will not open.

What happens when students take discs out of the drive after they have
saved but before they have exited the program?

Creating a file using Word 97 on a Win 95 machine and opening it later in
Word 97 in a Win 98 computer should not cause problems, right?

I have tried to duplicate various senarios to figure out exactly what
causes what, but I'm totally confused.  Does anyone understand exactly how
this all works?  TIA

Holly

Holly Tesar, Librarian
Excelsior Springs High School
612 Tiger Drive
Excelsior Springs, MO  64024
dsh000@mail.connect.more.net
http://www.exsmo.com/eshslibrary/library.htm
PH:  816-630-9210

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