# Why is there no B: drive on a computer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559 "2001-07-23T19:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RufusLeaking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c5a1d2/32.png) [@RufusLeaking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RufusLeaking)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/21 "2001-07-25T04:36:08Z")
Why does the system lock up? My guess is that when you log in, the system tries to access drive B:. Some part of the system is expecting it to be ready because it is mapped to your hard drive but another part waits for a physical drive B: to become ready. But it never will be ready because there is nothing there. Just a wild guess. In any event, I wasted most of a day recovering from this bug and figuring out how I got into the predicament so it wouldn’t happen again. I had upgraded from a Windows NT 4.0 machine in which I had mapped one of my directories to drive B: without any problem and was merely trying to set up my new computer exactly like my old one. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/22 "2001-07-25T05:08:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sewalk \* > \*\*I’m not saying that some third party never came up with a solution. Hell, get me a 8" floppy drive and interface specifications and I’ll wire it up for you and write a device driver. ‘’ The 8 inch drive used the same controller as the original non-high density 3.5 inch drives. No driver neccesary. Just a little wiring. > [@](#): > > Eight inch drives were already considered obsolete by the time IBM built the first PC and asked Microsoft to write an operating system for it. \*\* Not really. When I worked for Tandy back in 1983 we were still using them in Xenix machines(Model 12 and 16) and a lot of the other non-MSDOS machines, mainly higher end stuff by other companies used them. Not that Tandy was on the cutting edge or anything, but the certainly could have used 5.25 drives if they were superior. We used them in the Model 1,3,4, and 2000. It wasnt that they were obsolete, they were faster than the 5.25 if IIRC, and held more than the pre-high density 5.25 (the 3.5 wasn’t around,) but they were a pain in the ass, and expensive. The Tanden ones sometimes just scrape the oxide off the disk just for the hell of it. I actually have a few around here somewhere. Anybody need a copy of Xenix for a Tandy 6006? ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2001, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/23 "2001-07-25T07:26:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bdgr \* > **but they were a pain in the ass, and expensive.** In the computer industry, an inconvenient _and_ expensive option, when a simpler and/or cheaper option exists, is considered obsolete. The current state of floppy drives in the industry is a perfect example. With CD-ROM available as a cheap distribution medium and floppies pretty much relegated to small-scale local backup use, the more expensive options, i.e. the 2.88MB, 20MB, 120MB, and 128MB 3.5" replacements never caught on. Even though all of them are faster and have higher capacities than the ubiquitious 1.44MB diskette, they are all considered obsolete (despite the fact that I happen to own one of each and the PC I am using to write this message has the 2.88MB drive installed\*). As you said, Tandy was never really on the cutting edge. \*[sub]I haven’t used a 2.88MB diskette in this drive in over two years, btw.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/24 "2001-07-26T03:54:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sewalk \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by bdgr \* > > **but they were a pain in the ass, and expensive.** > > In the computer industry, an inconvenient _and_ expensive option, when a simpler and/or cheaper option exists, is considered obsolete. > > The current state of floppy drives in the industry is a perfect example. With CD-ROM available as a cheap distribution medium and floppies pretty much relegated to small-scale local backup use, the more expensive options, i.e. the 2.88MB, 20MB, 120MB, and 128MB 3.5" replacements never caught on. Even though all of them are faster and have higher capacities than the ubiquitious 1.44MB diskette, they are all considered obsolete (despite the fact that I happen to own one of each and the PC I am using to write this message has the 2.88MB drive installed\*). As you said, Tandy was never really on the cutting edge. > > \*[sub]I haven’t used a 2.88MB diskette in this drive in over two years, btw.[/sub] \*\* Not really the same thing. The high capacity drives didnt catch on because there was something better…cdr. 8 inch drives werent obsolete, a 5.25 drive couldnt replace them, they were just not consumer oriented devices. They were intended for High end business systems, and the PC wasnt. It wasn’t until Hard drives came down in price that the 8 inch drives became obsolete,and that was several years after the birth of the PC. Tandy wasnt on the cutting edge, but they wernt the only ones using them, they were just following the herd. The machines that Tandy made that used them were more business oriented machines. They came with upt to a meg of ram!, and you could get an ARCNET card and hub for them, so you could network them togeather. And the 6006 came with a 15 mb hard drive, instead of the 2nd 8 inch drive. This was hot shit back then. The pc just had 360k floppys and maxed out at 640k. ---
**Author:** ![deb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@deb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deb)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/25 "2001-07-26T04:23:42Z")
Yeeesh! Kids! B is reserved for the card punch, the way God intended. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559/26 "2001-07-26T15:07:38Z")
I think the person wants to know why the drive letters go from A: to C:. It’s missing a B: But it’s not really, since A: is also used for B: when required or B: can be added on the other floppy connector in the future. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-there-no-b-drive-on-a-computer/73559.md?page=1)