There are actually several good reasons:

1.  Floppies are NOT eternal.  (neither are HD's but they tend to last a 
bit longer in a 24/7 environment...)

2.  It provides a small - albiet distinct - level of security that 
floppies don't.

3.  A lot of the stuff I do is "experimental" in nature - I tend to 
reconfigure my systems and networks a -LOT- (I do software testing - and 
I need to be able to control many different aspects of the environment)
(a)  I have my "baseline" on HD - so if all else fails, I eject the 
floppy and reboot.
(b)  If the HD gets trashed - or dies - I copy from my "master" floppy 
back to HD, and I am cranking.  (i.e. archival - I make a master floppy, 
and then copy that "master" to whatever media I am going to run from.  
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I -never- run from a "master", I -always- run 
from a copy, with the master safely filed away.)
(c)  There is no question as to what environment I am in - if a floppy 
is running - its prototype.

4.  Recovery time is faster w/ a hard drive.  It takes (on my ancient 
486 box) several minutes for STN to come alive from a floppy, but comes 
back to life within about 30 seconds from a H/D  I also have my STN box 
on a UPS, but it does not last for hours either.  If power dies, when it 
comes back, I am back on line almost instantly.

(On that topic, I deliberately do NOT have my cable modem on the UPS, as 
if the power dies, it kills the connection instantly - causing whoever 
was involved in the connection to immediately reset to a known stable 
state - then if computer power dies - there's less chance of trashing 
the system.  An old trick from my 8-bit BBS days...)

5.  The environmental concerns sited below are also good reasons.

In sum - I have found that working from a HD is much more convienant.

Jim


David H wrote:
> I live in Ecuador on the edge of the rain forest. Floppy disks have a
> notoriously poor track record here because of the high humidity. I store
> floppy disks in a dry closet (warmed and dried with a light bulb) so 
> they
> won't be affected by the moisture. Now, a floppy in a running machine 
> might
> be OK, just because of the heat generated by the PC. But I'd rather run 
> off
> the HD, since in this environment it's more reliable.
> 
> Just my $.02
> 
> DAvid
> 
> > From: john burton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 05:25:35 -0600
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: [STN]  Of STN on the Hard Drive
> > 
> > For as long as I've run STN here, I've never moved it over to the hard
> > drive.  What benefit is there in running STN off the HD???
> 
> 
> 

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