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Thread ID: 25402	2002-10-02 23:13:00	Nortons Antivirus software	michele (2124)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
85533	2002-10-02 23:13:00	I loaded Nortons Antivirus 2002 via the internet and created the backup disks as instructed. Once my computer had been through the checking process I was told to load the "Basic Rescue Boot" disk to boot it out of DOS. When I did this a message came up: "Unable to update activity A:\>" I tried typing in different things ( remembering I am a computer novice) and it responded "Not ready reading Drive A. Abort, Retry, Fail?" Then when I tried typing in Retry it said: "Bad command or file name" Any suggestions of how to extricate myself from this??? Cheers - Michele Andrews	michele (2124)
85534	2002-10-03 00:31:00	Restart the computer as normal - note any problems. In the future, responses to "Not ready reading Drive A. Abort, Retry, Fail?" press A for Abort, R for Retry etc.	Merlin (503)
85535	2002-10-03 06:13:00	I read "Computer novice" and a: drive so will mention some basic stuff that you may or may not know. Computer disks have letter names. For historical reasons the 1st hard disk inside your machine is called C: Extra internal disks (extra hard drives, partioned hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs etc) and also external zip drives get called D: , E:, F: .... It depends on what order they were installed as to which is called what. A: and B: are reserved for smaller external drives. Most computers have an A: drive but not B: (again, historical reason) If the message comes up "unable to read A: Abort, Retry, Fail" it means either the floppy disk isn't in the drive, the floppy disk isn't seated properly in the drive or it's a faulty disk (or less possibly a faulty drive). Check that the floppy is actually in the drive. If it is eject it then push it back in and try again.	Heather P (163)
85536	2002-10-03 11:34:00	Hi there, just being nosey but wanted to say that I am a novice too and It's great to have simple things explained, alot of this stuff is over my head!	Mandy Fisher (2108)
85537	2002-10-03 11:40:00	Well it's nice to see some newbies around here! That's what this site is really all about - helping out the newbies with their amazing new computers :) seems lately it's just been a lot of stuff even I struggle to understand (I'm not quite a newbie ;)) Welcome :D Mike.	Mike (15)
85538	2002-10-03 12:05:00	Now the question is... did this help solve the problem? Also, the historical naming of drives comes from the early days when internal hard drives didn't exist. The new fangled PCs came with one floppy drive (a:). Then a second was added (b:). Along came the hard drive, the first two letters were in use so it became c: The B:s kind of faded out of the picture so we were left with a wacky naming system. In other words - the story of computers. Things developed further and faster than expected so strange things are built in.	Heather P (163)
85539	2002-10-03 12:53:00	> seems lately it's just been a lot of stuff even I > I struggle to understand (I'm not quite a newbie ;)) > > Welcome :D > > Mike. Seems Mike is being a little modest i think ;-), there wouldn't be much Mike couldn't tell you or understand about computer related issues i don't think:-) I have learnt alot from him and the rest of the regulars since starting as a newbie a year or so back!!!:-) So as Mike said welcome aboard to you both and hope you learn as much from these pros as i have:D P.s it was actually the second name that caught my attention as coincidentally my partner has a good friend by that name :-)	J ZEP (336)
85540	2002-10-03 23:28:00	To the newcomers: Computers give hours of fun and continual learning. Now me I really must learn to use punctuation better on this forum. ( a: ) would probably make far more sense in posts than putting the bracket next to the colon as follows: (a:)	Heather P (163)
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