How to set floppy for application specific temp files?

[ConQueso 0]

How would one go about setting up a financial application to all files including temp to the floppy, and send absolutely none to the HD?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Bursar 0]

Would depend on the application. If the app lets you specify where the files are stored, then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

If not, you could change your Windows Temp variables to point to the A drive (nor really recommended though as you'd have to change them back again after finishing with that app.

 

However, it's also possible that the app is hardcoded to save temp files to a particular place such as x:\app_path\temp in which case there's nothing you can do.

 

The only thing I'd be worried about is what happens when the disk fills up? Could be you'll get an error and nothing too bad will happen. Could also be that you'll end up with corrupt data.

[Christianb 8]

Hola ConQueso,

Floppies are a horrible storage media for a variety of reasons:

A. Speed

B. Reliability

C. Capacity

The significance of A-C depends on the application, but for the most part floppies won't work. On a financial application it might, because hopefully you won't have more than 1.44 MB of data to store. However, setting your temp directory to A:\ has got to be the worst idea ever. Furthermore TEMP data isn't what you're looking for. Temp data is just that meaningless temporary sludge. Once you restart your application it will most likely have entirely forgotten about the previous session's TEMP data. If there is a document file or data folder that stores your information I'd take a look at the size and the possibility of relocating that either at run-time or before and after to your floppy or a larger and more reliable storage point like CD-RW.

Cheers,

Christian

[Christianb 8]

Just yesterday I emptied my personal (user-assigned) temp directory and it had 118MB of data! Can your floppy do that? Even the 2.88MB variety? I highly doubt it. So let's skip the TEMP dir assignment idea entirely. Not only that, but there would be a significant performance degradation related to using the floppy drive for such a task. TEMP dir activity could be about 1/100 to 1/1000 the speed!

Cheers,

Christian

[adamvjackson 0]

He may need or wish to use a floppy for somewhat enhanced security, since it is a financial program.

[ConQueso 0]

Precisely, Adam.

 

I realize the restriction of the 1.4 MB limit and the size temp files can get, but some programs don't really have big files to save, (while of course some are huge) This is why I asked about application specific temp folders.

 

I guess I'll have to look into the various actual finance programs options and see what their save and temp options are... Anyone know of any that might work well with the floppy drive?

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Was surprised to see so much about such a topic so soon.

[adamvjackson 0]

What OS is the application running under? If Windows 9x/ME, you may try adding the DOS variables:

 

SET TEMP=A:\

SET TMP=A:\

 

But I don't suspect that will work.

[Nemesis 1]

Quote:

How would one go about setting up a financial application to all files including temp to the floppy, and send absolutely none to the HD?.

Since this question is in the Application (XP) I've assumed your PC has USB ports, if so, then you could use a USB key, they can hold from 8MB to 1Gb or data.

[Bursar 0]

Quote:

What OS is the application running under? If Windows 9x/ME, you may try adding the DOS variables:

SET TEMP=A:\
SET TMP=A:\

But I don't suspect that will work.

I covered that in my reply. The problem is that ALL temp files will get sent to this location, inclusing all the Windows related stuff and anything else that creates a temp file (AV software up[censored] and so-on).

A floppy disk just won't cut it for such a sweeping setting.

As I said, it might be workable if you set those variables just before you start running the app, and change them back to their original settings when you've finished.

[ConQueso 0]

What would be the pros and cons of making the financial application's temp folder (wherever it was) an encrypted folder? And how is the encryption done, by some connection to username and password?

[Christianb 8]

Quote:

What would be the pros and cons of making the financial application's temp folder (wherever it was) an encrypted folder?

What kind of 2nd rate program is this that you would need to encrypt the data in your temp folder to preserve your privacy?

Encryption is yet another no-no for your temp directory. A temp directory is supposed to fast, not secure. Why don't you just secure the computer it's on and call it good. If a user has access to your temp dir then they already have more than enough access to steal your data.

Quote:

And how is the encryption done, by some connection to username and password?

Presumably so. However, if we all knew a lot of the details about the encryption then it wouldn't be any good now would it?
Cheers,
Christian