Say goodbye to the 3.5 inch floppy disk

[ssj6akshat]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/storage/2010/04/26/sony-to-stop-sales-of-35-inch-floppy-disk-40088753/

They still sell floppy disks?:lolflag:

[lisati]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/storage/2010/04/26/sony-to-stop-sales-of-35-inch-floppy-disk-40088753/

They still sell floppy disks?:lolflag:

I spotted some in a couple of local shops a few months ago. And yes, I have a seldom used USB floppy drive. I've even got a couple of 5.25" drives in a cupboard somewhere.

[Grenage]

You'd be surprised how frequently they are used in some places.

[P4man]

Sony saw its Japanese sales of floppies decline from a record 47 million disks in fiscal 2002 to 12 million in fiscal 2009.

Not quite dead yet!

[Khakilang]

Well I still have an old computer that has a floppy drive and a software to format it. Although I never use it just there to fill in the drive space.

[ssj6akshat]

what made me lol more that they sold 12 million floppies!
ROFL

[ssj6akshat]

Well I still have an old computer that has a floppy drive and a software to format it. Although I never use it just there to fill in the drive space.

I too have a floppy drive on the computer I am using but yeah I am now using USB storage Devices(I skipped the CD era altogether,was still using floppies to share data then)

[Grenage]

It's not that surprising (or funny). ;)

There are a ton of legacy systems that still use them.

[lisati]

It's not that surprising (or funny). ;)

There are a ton of legacy systems that still use them.

As well as the previously mentioned USB device my old desktop still has a 3.5" floppy drive, useful for booting with Smart Boot Manager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/files/btmgr/3.7-1/) when a bootable CD doesn't boot for some reason, even though the BIOS supposedly supports boot from CD.

[Grenage]

That said, I swear they made better disks back in the 80s/90s; these days they seem to go bad after a few uses. Either that, or drives are poorer quality.

[insane_alien]

That said, I swear they made better disks back in the 80s/90s; these days they seem to go bad after a few uses. Either that, or drives are poorer quality.

or you're just used to the much better quality we have now. i remember floppies going bad all the time back in the 90's

[Grenage]

No way! I had Amiga games that lasted forever! Lol.

[user1397]

I personally can't wait for all optical media (and hard-disk drives) to be obsolete...flash media ftw!

[P4man]

the only way I see to obsolete optical media is replacing them with downloads. A CD (/dvd) costs just cents to produce, flash media will not likely ever get quit that cheap. Downloads can replace its function in many cases, but I dont see optical media disappear completely any time soon as it will be quite some time before almost everyone has a broadband internet connection.

As for harddrives, I do see that happening. Harddrives have a relatively large fixed cost and a very low per GB cost, so they have a price/capacity advantage for higher capacities, but the point where they meet in price goes up rather fast. I still have a 1GB IBM microdrive somewhere (miniature harddrive in CF format) for an old digital camera. When I bought it it was like €250 which was dirt cheap compared to equivalent sized memory cards. Im guessing today the "break even" point is now somewhere closer to 50 GB and it wont be long before its 500+GB.

[user1397]

the only way I see to obsolete optical media is replacing them with downloads. A CD (/dvd) costs just cents to produce, flash media will not likely ever get quit that cheap. Downloads can replace its function in many cases, but I dont see optical media disappear completely any time soon as it will be quite some time before almost everyone has a broadband internet connection.

As for harddrives, I do see that happening. Harddrives have a relatively large fixed cost and a very low per GB cost, so they have a price/capacity advantage for higher capacities, but the point where they meet in price goes up rather fast. I still have a 1GB IBM microdrive somewhere (miniature harddrive in CF format) for an old digital camera. When I bought it it was like €250 which was dirt cheap compared to equivalent sized memory cards. Im guessing today the "break even" point is now somewhere closer to 50 GB and it wont be long before its 500+GB.
I agree with you, if and when most people have high speed internet access (preferably much higher than anything we have today) than streaming and downloading will be much more preferable to any sort of physical media. I was referring to flash media more for replacing hard drives (will happen eventually, already is happening, just needs to get cheaper).

I think at one point everyone will have SSDs embedded in their TVs along with some sort of movie streaming device (netflix?), and blockbuster will go out of business (hehe).

Also, I predict that in the near future the next console wars between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will have consoles without any form of physical media...all games will be downloaded to an SSD in the console, internet access would be completely necessary.

And again, these are all just my predictions, and they're probably mostly wrong :)

[RandomJoe]

or you're just used to the much better quality we have now. i remember floppies going bad all the time back in the 90's

I had floppies go bad even then, but the quality definitely went downhill over time. When I was in college (early-mid 90s) I remember being picky over brands - BASF were quite good, humorously (for the subject of this article) Sonys would fail left and right, I refused to buy them. I even had two with bad sectors out-of-the-box once. But still once I had a good one it would last quite a while.

5-6 years later, we were using floppies all the time at work to transport data to customer sites and went through a ton of them. I found myself putting the same data on two or three disks because I wasn't sure I'd be able to get from the office to the jobsite with the data intact. And forget about reusing them more than a couple times, that was just begging for a bad sector in the middle of your work. That was what pushed us to using any new format we could to replace floppies.

The hardest part of breaking the dependence on floppies was customers. I work on HVAC control systems, and the computers the customers used were well behind the times. Even today very few sites get a new computer for their facility management crew, they just find the oldest hand-me-down that still runs! So switching to USB drives took forever as you'd often show up on site to find they were running something with Win95 or that just didn't have any USB ports on it.

[3rdalbum]

Floppy disks, BIOS, dialup, the Playstation 2 and Windows XP desperately need to be put out of their misery and DIE already. It's 2010, for god's sake.

[Grenage]

If it ain't broke...

[standingwave]

Speaking of old media, remember this? I can't believe we launched LP records out of the solar system. When some ET finds it in a million years or so, they are going to think we were all idiots. It's embarrassing I tell you.


http://i39.tinypic.com/25oytn4.png


Anyway, my basement is a museum of old media. Floppies, zip drives, punch cards and tape I've hung onto for nostalgic purposes, boxes of LPs, CDs I've long since ripped, audio cassettes, micro cassettes, 8-tracks, videotape (VHS and Beta!), Super 8 family movies I converted to VHS twenty years ago and then to digital... I guess I need to clean house.

[P4man]

Speaking of old media, remember this? I can't believe we launched LP records out of the solar system. When some ET finds it in a million years or so, they are going to think we were all idiots. It's embarrassing I tell you.

LOL. I can see aliens landing on earth in 100 years holding that LP and asking "WTF is this you guys sent us?", and no human being being having a clue :) (Or maybe some thinking its an ancient award for interstellar music :D )

[CharlesA]

I still have a zip drive, but most of the data I have is stored on my server (now), but old data is still stored on floppys and zip disks.

[ibuclaw]

what made me lol more that they sold 12 million floppies!
ROFL

Many stable businesses still run on old UNIX systems that only have floppies as the only viable bootable medium for installation + upgrades.


ie: Argos :)


PS: I still love and use my MD player!

[K.Mandla]

I still use floppies. I have a Pentium machine with a floppy drive and I can jump from Debian Etch to stable to testing after installing from the floppy drive. It's so cool, it will make you drool.
:lolflag:

[ugm6hr]

Actually, quite a lot of expensive non-computer devices still use floppies.

For example, some old ECG machines only have floppy drives for media access. They are pretty expensive, so there is no good reason to replace them just to simplify downloads.

[samalex]

It looks like Sony has decided to quit making floppy disks:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20003360-92.html

Being one who still has boxes of 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks I hate seeing the day come when floppies are outdated, but I guess with USB drives holding thousands of times more data then a 3.5" floppy can hold I can see why. Heck my tower had both sized floppy drives in it until just a few years ago.

Anyway, I never thought the day would come... Oh well, as all good things I guess.

Sam

[Invincible23]

RIP Floppy disk

[holes88]

Floppy discs have been gone for a long time now. Well no one uses them anymore and thats the best thing sony could have done.

[RiceMonster]

I don't know anyone who uses floppies anymore. I do have 2 computers with floppy drives, however. They're both sitting on the floor in my basement unplugged and nobody has used them in a few years.

Floppies are useless when you can use online storage or a flash drive. Both of which has significantly more storage space. Probably the right decision by Sony.

[Khakilang]

Well the floppy can be use as paper weight now.

[Uncle Spellbinder]

They actually serve a better purpose as coasters.

[frogotronic]

I don't know anyone who uses floppies anymore. I do have 2 computers with floppy drives, however. They're both sitting on the floor in my basement unplugged and nobody has used them in a few years.

Floppies are useless when you can use online storage or a flash drive. Both of which has significantly more storage space. Probably the right decision by Sony.

I still use floppies. And if you ever have a serious malware infection you'll need a floppy drive. There are very useful. Very low level hardware - always will run off of a MOBO without drivers.

And yes, you CAN get serious & nasty malwares, firmware viruses, etc that can only be cleaned by using a boot capable floppy.

- CH :guitar:

[Frogs Hair]

I still use an external floppy for Bios updates.

[P4man]

I still use an external floppy for Bios updates.

have you tried flashrom?
http://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom

Runs straight from the terminal, and is in the repo's. Havent tried it yet either, but it sure looks neat!

[Frogs Hair]

have you tried flashrom?
http://www.flashrom.org/Flashrom

Runs straight from the terminal, and is in the repo's. Havent tried it yet either, but it sure looks neat!

Thanks, but the Asus M4N78 PRO is not on the support list.

[immoweichert]

To quote a US company that sells floppy disks www.floppydisk.com/ (http://www.floppydisk.com/)

Floppy disks continue to be an important method for storing and transferring data. Floppy disks are still used in many computers. Diskettes are often required for embroidery equipment, machine tools and other specialty machines.

... and further down on their web site :

8 inch disks available !!

I thought they'd gone out of fashion in the 1980s !

[cariboo]

what made me lol more that they sold 12 million floppies!
ROFL

They are probably sitting on a retailers shelf. I had a friend give me a couple of cases of new floppies a couple of months back, they are now sitting on a shelf gathering dust.

[The Real Dave]

Wow, 12 million in 2009. There must be someone stocking up :)

That said, I often use floppies on older systems, and for FreeNAS live boots :)

[swoll1980]

Speaking of old media, remember this? I can't believe we launched LP records out of the solar system. When some ET finds it in a million years or so, they are going to think we were all idiots. It's embarrassing I tell you.


http://i39.tinypic.com/25oytn4.png


Anyway, my basement is a museum of old media. Floppies, zip drives, punch cards and tape I've hung onto for nostalgic purposes, boxes of LPs, CDs I've long since ripped, audio cassettes, micro cassettes, 8-tracks, videotape (VHS and Beta!), Super 8 family movies I converted to VHS twenty years ago and then to digital... I guess I need to clean house.

LPs are making a comeback (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1702369,00.html).

[gradinaruvasile]

Thanks, but the Asus M4N78 PRO is not on the support list.

Speaking of this... I recently put together for someone a M4N78 based system... I want to connect the floppy drive and i see that it doesnt have floppy controller at all... Maybe its old news, but it is the first mobo i see without a floppy controller.

BTW, all the newer ASUS mobos have support for BIOS flash from floppy/USB drive directly from the BIOS (,make sure the USB drive or floppy is formatted vfat). I flashed my M3N78-VM from the BIOS from a floppy drive.

[ibuclaw]

Thread renamed with OP's permission.



They are probably sitting on a retailers shelf. I had a friend give me a couple of cases of new floppies a couple of months back, they are now sitting on a shelf gathering dust.

Same, but in a nice dust-proof box/container.

Actually, I need to hook up a Floppy Drive to one of my systems pretty soon, there are some nostalgic data/games I have lying about all over the place that I would probably want to give rebirth to. :)

[3rdalbum]

Did they actually send a record player as well? The aliens might not realise that you're meant to put a needle on it and spin it a particular direction and speed, and convert the motion of the needle to sound.

[ibuclaw]

Did they actually send a record player as well? The aliens might not realise that you're meant to put a needle on it and spin it a particular direction and speed, and convert the motion of the needle to sound.

Let alone we are ignoring the whole notion that alien life may not have ears to listen to it. :)

[insane_alien]

Let alone we are ignoring the whole notion that alien life may not have ears to listen to it. :)

or even hear at the same frequencies we do

[andras artois]

The CNC machines at my college still rely on floppy disks to transfer the NC code from computers to the CNC machines. They can't use USB because the machines run Win 95.

[Grenage]

Then it must be Win95A, not B - how retro.

[CharlesA]

Wasn't USB support on any version of Windows 95 spotty at best? *shudder*

[ibuclaw]

Wasn't USB support on any version of Windows 95 spotty at best? *shudder*

Not sure myself, however I know USB-2.0 wasn't supported until WinXP arrived. And Win98 and prior is missing quite a lot of what we now regard as "generic" drivers (ie: for USB hard drives, etc).

Linux is the only Operating System to support USB-3.0 devices last time I checked earlier this year, but I don't honestly keep track of what progress others are making.

[P4man]

Linux is the only Operating System to support USB-3.0 devices last time I checked earlier this year, but I don't honestly keep track of what progress others are making.

Linux may have native support in the kernel, but in windows I think you just have to install a driver for you usb 3.0 card. Thats not so terrible.

[Johnsie]

Many musical synth systems use floppy disks for saving sequence files. They are starting to move toward using usb sticks but if you like the sound of an instrument you willjust have to put up with using a floppy.

[3rdalbum]

Linux may have native support in the kernel, but in windows I think you just have to install a driver for you usb 3.0 card. Thats not so terrible.

It's a waste; it means that you have to have a USB 2.0 controller and some USB 2.0-only ports PLUS your USB 3.0 controller and ports.

Linux users don't need that cowdung, but we're still stuck with having to buy computers that are more expensive due to duplicated USB functionality, and we also have to put up with having only two fast USB ports. That is, until Windows 8 comes with native USB 3 support.

[tica vun]

Did they actually send a record player as well? The aliens might not realise that you're meant to put a needle on it and spin it a particular direction and speed, and convert the motion of the needle to sound.

Or, aliens might not use vibrations in gas pressure as a means of communication. Or, aliens might use the entire probe as nutrient, not even realising its significance. Or, they might just consider it a piece of useless space debris and disregard it.

If you take all of the assumptions the designers of the message did - which is basically that the probe will be intercepted by a technologically advanced civilisation that sees in roughly the same EM spectrum we do, uses some kind of writing system, is familiar with basic math and uses some form of audible communication - it stands to reason they'd also be able to decipher the message that tells them how to listen to the record.

[ibuclaw]

Many musical synth systems use floppy disks for saving sequence files. They are starting to move toward using usb sticks but if you like the sound of an instrument you willjust have to put up with using a floppy.

I thought they moved to SMC Cards first, that trend died terribly quickly ... then later SD Cards, or was it MMC...

[98cwitr]

I used floppies at my old job to upgrade BIOS on older dell's all the time...I might wanna stock up :)