Floppies - has their time run out?

[Demio]

Well, I was just sitting here bored and I was wondering why some manufacturers don't install floppy drives in their pcs in factory, and why most people don't install them while building their pcs.

Have floppies really died? I'm asking because I still install floppy drives in my pcs, maybe I'm being old fashioned but I still see them as useful (some boot recovery disks, old fdisk diskettes, memtest, etc).

So what are your opinions in floppy drives?
Curious to read them hehe :D

edit: fixed a typo :tongue:

[jISh]

They've become more of a hassle than a help. USB keys are the wave of the future, IMO.

Other than for very old Windows/Mac machines I see no reason to ever need a floppy again.

[PatrickMay16]

Floppies now are only useful for making boot disks.

[maniacmusician]

they're fairly worthless to the average users. can only be used for older computers. besides, we can make boot discs with CDs now too, right?

obsolete.

[xhaan]

I love my floppies and I don't ever want them to go away!:sad:
I wish my new computer had a floppy drive... I tried to put one of my old ones in, but there isn't even a slot for floppies on the board!

I suppose I could get a USB floppy drive for it, but it just isn't the same... :sad:

[croak77]

Flash memory drives are just so cheap that they kinda make floppys obsolete. I got 2GB on my keychain.

[UltraMathMan]

I hate having to dig around (mostly when doing Windows stuff - ew) for a floppy for some obscure reason. Flash me anytime :)

[Stew2]

Not enough room to put a decent sized file on :). Flash drives all the way!

[xhaan]

Heh, I think I need to go through my floppy collection and pick out stuff that I want to keep and throw out all the old dos programs and boot disks that I'll never use again. :p

My last post was a joke (mostly!), though I do feel some nostalgia for my floppies for some reason.

[henriquemaia]

Totally useless. I got rid of a bunch of them a few months ago. Everytime I thought of using them, I had to test them beforehand to see if they were still usable - most of the time, they weren't.

[xhaan]

Not enough room to put a decent sized file on :). Flash drives all the way!

Heh yeah, and a 700mb cd or a 2gb flash is a bit of a waste to boot a 1.4mb linux image. :D

[szf]

It's funny. In the last build I included a < $8 USD 3.5" floppy drive. Used it once for some reason now forgotten.

Obsolete, except maybe sometimes.

[K.Mandla]

Yes and no. On a newer machine they're irrelevant. On older machines they're more or less important.

Is it possible to do a BIOS update from USB? (Honest question.) That's about the only idea I can think of for floppies any more. And if you use the other PC operating system, I think you can usually update your BIOS without them.

[Dr. C]

I still find them useful and USB floppies do not rep[lace the old ISA kind. There is no comparable replacement for small files, simple recovery boot etc.

Some uses:

Boot up DOS to update bios
Back up GRUB and use a floppy to recover GRUB, by booting GRUB from a floppy.
Install certain drivers
Give someone a small file. It is much simpler to copy a 300k file to a floppy than to burn a cd, and much cheaper.

[henriquemaia]

It's funny. In the last build I included a < $8 USD 3.5" floppy drive. Used it once for some reason now forgotten.

Obsolete, except maybe sometimes.

Now that you mention, when I built my computer some months ago, I didn't put a floppy drive. I had a spare one, but chose not to use it. At least for me the floppies are dead.

[Zyzzyx]

Yeah, still useful. If you need RAID or SATA drivers when installing Windows. Though I thought that could be done on CD, maybe not, haven't had to myself.

Other than that? Nah... let 'em go.

[Iandefor]

Floppies have been pronounced dead here for a long time now. I've not used one of those in... man, I can't even remember the last time I used one.

[Pete109]

For me, floppies go by the same principal as a gun or a condom - I'd rather have one and not need one, than need one and not have one. I still have one on each PC for boot diskettes, etc., but I rarely (if ever) use them.

[Ramses de Norre]

My floppy controller is broken.. I didn't get a floppy drive with my pc and bought one later just to notice my controller didn't work.. I was lucky they gave me my money back at the store =)

So I'd have one if it was possible..

[Carrots171]

What's a floppy drive anyway? I forgot. Oh yeah, now I remember, it's one of those really old useless disks that are notoriously unreliable and can only hold a pathetic 1.44 megabytes. I'm surprised they aren't in museums yet... :D

[[h2o]]

My previous computer actually included a floppy drive. But I never used it. Current computer is a laptop, and does thankfully enough not include a floppy drive.
I mean, come on, I can transfer 10 floppy disks worth of data over network in the time it takes for the floppy to mount.

Yeah, my server has a floppy drive, but I never used that anyway since installation was CD-based.


So yes, for most people the floppy drive is really obsolete.

[AndyCooll]

I answered that I don't ever use them (and I don't).

However, the folk on these forums are in general not your "average" user. In my job we run a number of free public access pc's, and by far the greatest majority of users still save their stuff to floppy disks. USB keys are definitely on the increase (and has been mentioned, are probably the future), but the floppy disk hasn't died yet.

:cool:

[JoshX]

Haven't used floppies since 2001, lol.
Now i use flash memory sticks, it fits in my pocket :D!

[ember]

Floppies ARE very useful - at least when you want to install Windows on a box with an unsupported S-ATA controller ;)

[Demio]

For me, floppies go by the same principal as a gun or a condom - I'd rather have one and not need one, than need one and not have one. I still have one on each PC for boot diskettes, etc., but I rarely (if ever) use them.
Exactly how I think hehe.

[Erik Trybom]

The only reason to use a floppy disk is to install obsolete software on obsolete machines.

[insane_alien]

i'd rather go back to windows 95 than lose my floppies. i use them a lot.

[beercz]

Floppies? What size?

5 and a quarter inch 360Kb?
5 and a quarter inch 1.2Mb?
3 and a half inch 720Kb?
3 and a half inch 1.44Mb?
3 and a half inch 2.2Mb?

I still remember 8 inch floppy disks!!!

Sadly all abosolete now. Have been for years.

[Indras]

Floppies? What size?

5 and a quarter inch 360Kb?
5 and a quarter inch 1.2Mb?
3 and a half inch 720Kb?
3 and a half inch 1.44Mb?
3 and a half inch 2.2Mb?

I still remember 8 inch floppy disks!!!

Sadly all abosolete now. Have been for years.

How about 3 and a half inch 120Mb? Been a long time since I've seen an LS120 drive, you'd think that they would've gotten popular at some point in time. Probably the media just never got cheap enough for easy adoption.

But yeah, USB keys are definitely the preferred replacement. I used to use CD-RW's to swap files with my friends, that way I could clear them when I was done and use them for something else. Now I either e-mail it if it's small enough, or hand it off on a flash keychain if it's not.

[3rdalbum]

In many circles, floppy disks died with the invention of the Zip drive.

It's funny to think that Apple pioneered the idea of computers not having floppy drives, though I suppose they also pioneered the idea of computers not having BIOSes.

I bought my first floppyless computer in 1999. Flash drives and CD-RWs have been around for years and are cheap as chips, so I can't believe that floppy drives and disks are still available.

[Lord Illidan]

I still find them useful and USB floppies do not rep[lace the old ISA kind. There is no comparable replacement for small files, simple recovery boot etc.

Some uses:

Boot up DOS to update bios
Back up GRUB and use a floppy to recover GRUB, by booting GRUB from a floppy.
Install certain drivers
Give someone a small file. It is much simpler to copy a 300k file to a floppy than to burn a cd, and much cheaper.

For giving someone a small file....don't forget e-mail :)

[Sef]

Mainly use them for a boot disk on older computers. Otherwise just have some old floppies around with a few things on them that I put on my hard drive. Don't really care about floppies otherwise.

[[h2o]]

For giving someone a small file....don't forget e-mail :)
Yeah. Actually, I think I'd rather read the data hex-by-hex over the phone before using a floppy drive ;)

[Lord Illidan]

;1526707']Yeah. Actually, I think I'd rather read the data hex-by-hex over the phone before using a floppy drive ;)

Wow...die hard...well... I'd go down the binary route...perhaps I'll take a day to send a kilobyte of data!!

[mips]

Floppies are handy when:

1- The pc has no usb ports
2- You cant boot from the usb port

[Minyaliel]

I voted option number two because my computer just doesn't have a floppy drive, so I don't need them. I prefer cd's and such things, although I do have a few old floppy discs somewhere in my closet.

[Dr. C]

For giving someone a small file....don't forget e-mail :)

That only works if the recepiant has access to the Internet on the computer where thay are going to use the small file.

[Tomosaur]

When USB bootable BIOS's become the absolute standard, the death knell for the floppy will have truly been rung.

Small files can be transferred with extreme ease via email, USB sticks, or filesharing programs. Floppy disks are slow and generally useless in today's world.

This does not include zip drives, which I believe are pretty cool.

[[h2o]]

That only works if the recepiant has access to the Internet on the computer where thay are going to use the small file.

Honestly, I have not had the problem. Everyone who owns a computer has internet access. And if they don't they have a USB-port.

The possibility for both things to happen at once (no internet, no usb) is as close to zero as it gets. That is, of course, in the environment I am in. I guess the situation might be different in other places.

[%hMa@?b<C]

I still use them, although my school doesnt, which makes it nearly useless. I love my floppies, however.

[BWF89]

I haven't used floppies in years. Although if I bought a new computer that didn't come with a floppy drive I'd buy one just incase I the need ever arose that I would need to get something off an old floppy.

[mssever]

What's a floppy drive anyway? I forgot. Oh yeah, now I remember, it's one of those really old useless disks that are notoriously unreliable and can only hold a pathetic 1.44 megabytes. I'm surprised they aren't in museums yet... :D

With you there... I've had many annoying experiences with floppies going bad. Plus, they're tiny and slow. I remember backing up my family's pre-CD Mac to floppy. Talk about baby-sitting.

The best way to transfer files is to use network storage. Flash drives are a distant second.

[ubuntu_demon]

IMHO if one of the pc's in your network has a floppy drive in case it's needed it's enough. I haven't my floppy drive for at least one and a half year.

[aPello]

Only thing they are good for now days is if you deal with older computers.

I love my floppies and I don't ever want them to go away!:sad:
I wish my new computer had a floppy drive... I tried to put one of my old ones in, but there isn't even a slot for floppies on the board!

I suppose I could get a USB floppy drive for it, but it just isn't the same... :sad:

Floppy drives run off on an IDE cable, (usually the same as your CD/DVD rom)

[GeneralZod]

The last time I used a floppy was a year or so ago when I rounded up all of the floppies I owned, copied all the data off them, and threw them away.

[Bezmotivnik]

I still use floppies for a lot of things, particularly multiple archiving of text documents. A 1.44M floppy still holds a lot of documents. I find that they are slightly more reliable than various types of flash memory, which I've found to be prone to inexplicable and irrevocable distruction. I've lost important data on flash that simply croaked stone dead. I started a thread about this on another tech forum a year of so ago, and the people who use flash more than I do seem to give it a reliable life of about two years -- curiously, that's the typical warranty these days. :-k

A good floppy (not the cheapest possible no-name brand) seems to hold data and format for about five years, maybe more. CD-Rs (again depending on quality) may be better, or they may not work again in a different device than the one in which you burned the original. Much to my astonishment, I've had properly stored CD-Rs develop errors after a couple of years despite having no apparent damage -- and CD-Rs are far less damage-resistant than they were originally touted as being.

Floppies are good for moving documents and smaller files around among non-networked computers, which probably have all their accessible USB ports in use in any case. :rolleyes:

While I can't picture buying any more floppies as they are expensive for their capacities, I still use the ones I have and wouldn't build a box without an FDD. I've sorely missed having a FDD in my notebook.

[gamerchick02]

I voted that I still use them...

But here is my reason:

When I was working in a chemical lab, we had computers that didn't have writeable CD drives. I had to transfer data over several computers (different Windows variants: XP to 98 ) and the only thing they had in common were floppy drives. Luckily, the files were small enough to be transferred on the disk.

On my home computer, I don't use the floppy too much. It does come in handy for a bootdisk and for transferring files with an older computer (one that doesn't have USB drive support-- like Win98 ).

Amy

[Compucore]

I am like you really old schooled with computers. Some places that I go to like training centers or something similar I need the floppies for transporting my docs from one to another. Most places have the computer locked down almost for those usb ports for jumpdrives. WHich makes my time useless over there. Since I have to carry a bundle of them in order to do my work. But the only thing that I use really the floppy drives for are installations of windows especially on the earlier one.Thats about it over here. I think they are still usefull like the tape back ups where you can store 12 to 24 gigs compress and uncompressed.


Well, I was just sitting here bored and I was wondering why some manufacturers don't install floppy drives in their pcs in factory, and why most people don't install them while building their pcs.

Have floppies really died? I'm asking because I still install floppy drives in my pcs, maybe I'm being old fashioned but I still see them as useful (some boot recovery disks, old fdisk diskettes, memtest, etc).

So what are your opinions in floppy drives?
Curious to read them hehe :D

edit: fixed a typo :tongue:

[Dr. C]

I still use floppies for a lot of things, particularly multiple archiving of text documents. A 1.44M floppy still holds a lot of documents. I find that they are slightly more reliable than various types of flash memory, which I've found to be prone to inexplicable and irrevocable distruction. I've lost important data on flash that simply croaked stone dead. I started a thread about this on another tech forum a year of so ago, and the people who use flash more than I do seem to give it a reliable life of about two years -- curiously, that's the typical warranty these days. :-k

A good floppy (not the cheapest possible no-name brand) seems to hold data and format for about five years, maybe more. CD-Rs (again depending on quality) may be better, or they may not work again in a different device than the one in which you burned the original. Much to my astonishment, I've had properly stored CD-Rs develop errors after a couple of years despite having no apparent damage -- and CD-Rs are far less damage-resistant than they were originally touted as being.

Floppies are good for moving documents and smaller files around among non-networked computers, which probably have all their accessible USB ports in use in any case. :rolleyes:

While I can't picture buying any more floppies as they are expensive for their capacities, I still use the ones I have and wouldn't build a box without an FDD. I've sorely missed having a FDD in my notebook.

Actually I have found floppies holding data far longer than 5 years. For example: I recently installed a 16 year old windows 3,1 program off old 5,25in in floppies on an instance of Windows XP running in VMWare on Ubuntu 7.04. This was by networking a 5.25in floppy drive of an old Windows NT4 machine using samba. Everything worked just fine.

So some of us still use floppies and revive old floppy threads. I do agree only one floppy drive of each kind is really needed on a network. The floppy will only be truly obsolete when I can buy a USB key for under $0.50 and it will hold data for at least twenty years.

By the way most floppies fail because they are exposed to magnetic fields usually unshielded speakers.

[Polygon]

can motherboards now detect usb flash drives to do stuff like updating the BIOS and booting? cause those are the only reasons i would use a floppy

[Iceni]

I just went thru my old hardware and found the last floppy drive I ever bought, still inside the original wrapping. It has 2002 written on it, so I guess thats when I built my first floppy-free computer.

[ticopelp]

I haven't even seen a floppy in about seven years.

[-grubby]

I haven't touched a floppy ever since I got my flash drive

[JacobRogers]

When I was 13 I first got a computer in 1998, I'd waste time by downloading AOL sound themes and then saving them to floppy disk, sometimes multiple floppy disk. I'd then neatly label and store them.

What a waste of time.

[multifaceted]

Flash is definitely the way. I haven't used a floppy disk or drive in nearly 6 years.... with CD-R's being so cheap and then the advent of flash drives with more and more memory space... what's the point?

Floppies have become superfluous!

[RAV TUX]

Well, I was just sitting here bored and I was wondering why some manufacturers don't install floppy drives in their pcs in factory, and why most people don't install them while building their pcs.

Have floppies really died? I'm asking because I still install floppy drives in my pcs, maybe I'm being old fashioned but I still see them as useful (some boot recovery disks, old fdisk diskettes, memtest, etc).

So what are your opinions in floppy drives?
Curious to read them hehe :D

edit: fixed a typo :tongue:

I like Floppy Art:

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=45936&d=1192066868

[jrusso2]

Floppies still have an important purpose if you need to add a SCSI or SATA driver to XP or Windows 2000

[Compucore]

I still use them from time to time Especially when you need to do a fdisk /mbr to calear the master boot record for switching from one OS like Sun solaris to ubuntu or to windows.(Shudders.) Heck I think I still have an 8 inch obsolete disk over here somewhere. (Digging around to see where I have it hiding.)

:)
Compucore

[Ultra Magnus]

I'd like to say obselete, but since A floppy saved my computer I can't:

CD drive was broken and the easiest way to boot into a network install was with a floppy. - Long Live floppy disks

[frup]

I haven't used a floppy in about 5 years now... All my old ones stopped working and I couldn't be bothered buying more.

[FuturePilot]

I haven't used a floppy in ages. The only thing I still see them good for is flashing your BIOS. But this can be done with a CD now too.

[toupeiro]

YES! and good riddance to them!!!

[EdThaSlayer]

Floppies are big, expensive(per mb), and cumbersome. Flashdrive FTW.

[voided3]

They are only handy for working with older hardware really, so if you are referring to using a modern computer with a modern OS, yes they are rather useless. I only really needed a floppy once in one of my newer computers to make a boot disk for a ten year old one. The one exception I had though was installing Windows XP on a Dell E520 desktop; I had to load the SATA driver with a floppy because both the DVD drives and the hard drive were SATA. Perhaps this could have been done with a USB drive though. From a builder's standpoint, floppies are a pain though I feel because it's another cable and it uses a compact power connector instead of a standard molex. In the case of my current desktop it actually made my HDDs run hotter because they couldn't get air between them and now there is an open 3.5" cover letting air in.

That and haven't they stopped selling the diskettes now for the most part?

[arsenic23]

I haven't had a floppy in my machine for about 8 years now. The only possible reason for having on is to install raid on XP. Even then you can always install onto one drive, install the driver, and then clone that drive onto the raid, which is easier then finding a floppy drive as far as I'm concerned.

But the real question is do they make Sata floppies? Because I don't even bother having ata/ide channels on my new motherboards anymore.

[vishzilla]

USB/Flash/Thumb drives are the replacements, Floppies are passe

[atihimself]

I only use them 'cause I'm trekkie and my LCARS24 console can handle only 3,5"

[bonzodog]

Our local suppliers have stopped stocking floppy disks now. It's becoming difficult to even obtain them. My system has a floppy drive, though i'm not sure why. I've never used it.

[iPower]

haven't used one in years

[mthei]

I used floppy disks until last year, when I got my current computer, and all the better. In fact, up until last year, in terms of doing school work, I would save a copy of an essay or presentation on my hard drive, email a copy to myself, save to a flash drive, and then go to the school's library and copy the emailed document to a floppy. But I can't even count the amount of times I've run into formatting issues with floppy disks, either that or they'd become corrupted, even with a case. USB keys are so much more convenient.

[BarfBag]

I have a strange love for Floppies, but I never use them anymore.

[Kitsun]

Old, Slow, Ugly, Insufficient, Obsolete, Dead.

[BDNiner]

Until system builders create a good way to flash a bios without a floppy then they should stay around. I still have some obscure programs that i run off of floppies. i was able to create a bootable usb key once but i could not flash a bios with it because the board had poor usb boot support. In fact most of my floppies are bios flash disk for the various PCs i have owned over the years. my parents may have a old computer with the large 5 1/4 disk drive and they may have some floppies for it somewhere, i don't think it works. i was thinking of taking it and installing it on my computer to remind me of the good old days.

[stimpack]

Not had a floppy drive since the last decade.

If you don't have a CD writer, a USB key or access to a network to transfer files, youv'e probably got a lot more problems than needing a floppy anyway.

[Crashmaxx]

Floppys were crappy when they were new. The would often get corrupt, couldn't store much even for their day, and were just plain junk. So with so many alternatives now, I can't really see much reason to have one.

The last time I had to use one was for a server I was setting up with Windows Server 2003 (blech!). It had come with SATA and Fake RAID drivers on a floppy, which I had to load before I could install. Of course, Ubuntu ran fine on that same machine without any of that hassle.

[AbredPeytr]

I still find them useful and USB floppies do not rep[lace the old ISA kind. There is no comparable replacement for small files, simple recovery boot etc.

Some uses:

Boot up DOS to update bios
Back up GRUB and use a floppy to recover GRUB, by booting GRUB from a floppy.
Install certain drivers
Give someone a small file. It is much simpler to copy a 300k file to a floppy than to burn a cd, and much cheaper.

Uh, I just use email or a network for such small files.

[conehead77]

Floppies? What size?

5 and a quarter inch 360Kb?
5 and a quarter inch 1.2Mb?
3 and a half inch 720Kb?
3 and a half inch 1.44Mb?
3 and a half inch 2.2Mb?

I still remember 8 inch floppy disks!!!

Sadly all abosolete now. Have been for years.

you forgot the 8 inch ones. my father showed me one about 20 years ago...

edit: i cant read!!!!

[Lster]

I used them about a year ago when building a very small operating system (at the time it only printed 'Hello'!). Now I use USB flash drives to boot off so I don't use them anymore. Also that fact that my mom sold our main computer (when I got my laptop) and neither of our laptops feature a floppy drive.

[Coldkill]

I guess I'm not as technically minded as some of you here, but I still use floppies.

We're a somewhat poor family so we can't be out buying new stuff all the time. In Canada they put extra taxes on CDs and up until recently USB keys were around $40 for 256mb over here.

I'll use a floppy (8 for $1) if I need a document or a few pictures printed out at my moms work or when I'm using the schools ancient computers.

Ever watch the movie "Hackers"? They hacked the Gibson using floppies:lolflag:

[Dr. C]

Uh, I just use email or a network for such small files.

That assumes that the recipient has access to email or a networked computer. IF they do not then the only other option is to burn a cd and that does not have the convenience or flexibility of a floppy.

Until one can get a USB key for under $0.50 this is one niche where the floppy is by far the best solution.

[CAD-MAN]

Of course their time has run out! You can get 1000 times their capacity on a flash stick for £5 ($10), and if you willing to fork out a little more, you can get many more 1000's of times the (useless) 1.44 MB of a floppy. :D

[Lord Illidan]

That assumes that the recipient has access to email or a networked computer. IF they do not then the only other option is to burn a cd and that does not have the convenience or flexibility of a floppy.

Until one can get a USB key for under $0.50 this is one niche where the floppy is by far the best solution.

0.50? I can get it for free. Almost everyone gives them away free with special offers..:lolflag:

[Dr. C]

0.50? I can get it for free. Almost everyone gives them away free with special offers..:lolflag:

I am not talking about "special offers" and similar marketing gimmicks, I mean been able to walk into a business supply store and buy a box of say 100 USB keys where each key costs less than $0.50 and preferably in the $0.10 - $0.20 range.

[bobbocanfly]

Wish i had some floppies on me now to backup my GPG and SSH keys. Cant put them on my Flash drive as i permanently have it on me, only have one hard drive and im not putting 1mb of data on a CD or DVD.

Floppies are awesome

[zgornel]

floppy = slow, unreliable, small capacity, legacy. dead.

[Lord Illidan]

I am not talking about "special offers" and similar marketing gimmicks, I mean been able to walk into a business supply store and buy a box of say 100 USB keys where each key costs less than $0.50 and preferably in the $0.10 - $0.20 range.

Why would you want to buy 100 USB keys? Or am I missing something here? 100 floppies..that gives me 100-130 mb, right? 1 flash drive can give me over 1 gig..

Flash is the way to go. Sure, floppies still have their use for old computers, and computers without USB (the very very old ones), but for modern usage? Hardly anything. I haven't used them for years now, and I'm not crying :P

[joe.turion64x2]

I have floppies in all my machines, even in the last I built, for legacy reasons (I want the machines to be able to read/write to all 'possible' devices, one never knows when are you gonna find strange devices). However I don't miss the old floppies, now I find them small, unreliable, fragile, noisy.

After 'phasing out' my floppies I moved on to CD's. When I realized I could not afford to be burning the smallest file in a CD, I continued with CDRWs. Now I am happy with my USB flash devices and my portable HD.

The laptop did not come with a floppy (does any?), and I have never needed it.

Thanks.
Joe.

[Frak]

Floppies still have an important purpose if you need to add a SCSI or SATA driver to XP or Windows 2000
Unless you have Vista, where it uses a flash drive.

[Dr. C]

Why would you want to buy 100 USB keys? Or am I missing something here? 100 floppies..that gives me 100-130 mb, right? 1 flash drive can give me over 1 gig..

Flash is the way to go. Sure, floppies still have their use for old computers, and computers without USB (the very very old ones), but for modern usage? Hardly anything. I haven't used them for years now, and I'm not crying :P

A good example is a business that prepares documents on behalf of clients, where the documents are say around 100k and you wish to provide the client with both the document in printed form and an electronic version they can modify at a later date. So if you wish to give 100k files to 100 people a 1GB USB is totally useless, but 100 floppies will do the job very well.

[Frak]

A good example is a business that prepares documents on behalf of clients, where the documents are say around 100k and you wish to provide the client with both the document in printed form and an electronic version they can modify at a later date. So if you wish to give 100k files to 100 people a 1GB USB is totally useless, but 100 floppies will do the job very well.
E-Mail

[markp1989]

i havnt used a floppy in about 5 years, i was sick of them,

i would save the work on it at home, get to school and the school computer would complain that the floopy drive was not formated

[Lord Illidan]

A good example is a business that prepares documents on behalf of clients, where the documents are say around 100k and you wish to provide the client with both the document in printed form and an electronic version they can modify at a later date. So if you wish to give 100k files to 100 people a 1GB USB is totally useless, but 100 floppies will do the job very well.


And since I cannot visualise a business without access to the internet in this day and age...e-mail will do the job even better :P


I think it depends on the context. Data over 1 mb, what do you use? I'd go for CD-RW. Cheap, and rewritable, just like a floppy, only a heck more space.

We used to have floppies at school for data transfer. Nowadays, we use flash, and if we forget them at home, we just upload the data to gmail, where we can then read it at home.

[AndyCooll]

I haven't used a floppy in ages. The only thing I still see them good for is flashing your BIOS. But this can be done with a CD now too.

I used a floppy earlier this year for just that purpose, and it was the only reason I could think of for needing them. I wasn't aware that you could use a CD for I would have used that if I'd known. Otherwise I never use them.

Having said all that, they may well be on the way out but their time isn't up yet. We have around 180 pc's with floppy drives available to the public. And it constantly surprises me how much floppies are still used. Indeed we sell both floppies and USB sticks, and because of the cost floppies easily outsell sticks. USB sticks may only be a few quid these days and hold far more data, but floppies only cost a few pence and that seems to override all other factors. When you only want to store a copy of your CV, 1.44mb is still plenty it seems.
We're due to replace all our pc's in the next few months. Many customers are going to have a shock when these pc's arrive without floppy drives!

:cool:

[Dr Small]

Well, I was just sitting here bored and I was wondering why some manufacturers don't install floppy drives in their pcs in factory, and why most people don't install them while building their pcs.

Have floppies really died? I'm asking because I still install floppy drives in my pcs, maybe I'm being old fashioned but I still see them as useful (some boot recovery disks, old fdisk diskettes, memtest, etc).

So what are your opinions in floppy drives?
Curious to read them hehe :D

edit: fixed a typo :tongue:
I still have my floppy drives in my old pc... this one here doesn't have a good spot to put one in. But I love floppies. By another 15 years, kids won't even know what one is. :|

Dr Small