Floppy Disk Drive

[alex_walke]

Im thinking of buying a new computer.

Do I really need a Floppy Disk Drive? What are they used for now in modern computing? In the past they were used to back-up files from Hard Disk such as Word Documents or System Restore Packs but are they used anymore? Now that CD-RW is now the main way of backing up?

I just want to make sure that floppy disks are in the past.....or whether they are still needed. I will only be using the computer for personal use and the occasional word processing.

[bmxbandit]

in terms of backing up data, the floppy is pretty much dead. on the other hand, it can occasionally be useful (e.g. flashing the bios, transferring files to an older pc) and for the sake of an extra fiver, you might as well have one i'd say.

[nffc]

No you don't, for legacy reasons I have one, and hardly if ever use it.

The last time was running memtest a few weeks ago, and before then, well I can't remember.

I have CD-RW, DVD-RW, and a flash key, so really, don't need it.

I should yank it out, and mod the fascia as a control for my case lights and fan speed thingies.

[bmxbandit]

a couple of my lecturers insist on work being submitted on a floppy, for reasons known only to them... so i gotta keep one.

theres always booting up raid or sata drivers when installing o/s

[nffc]

Originally Posted by bmxbandit

a couple of my lecturers insist on work being submitted on a floppy, for reasons known only to them... so i gotta keep one.

Talk about dark ages... I'm in Nottm, where's that?

[kronas]

i suggest you stick one in there, its a near neglible cost to have one in your pc, floppy's are still useful for small documents instead of wasting a cd-r.

[Flubflow]

Originally Posted by kronas

i suggest you stick one in there, its a near neglible cost to have one in your pc, floppy's are still useful for small documents instead of wasting a cd-r.

A CDR actually costs less than a floppy these days so it is much less of a waste in monetary terms.
I'd still keep the trusty old floppy drive though.

[mrlipring]

ditch it and get a usb one (not all that much more expensive) and only get it out of the cupboard when you need it. use that 3.5" bay for your fanbus.

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

theres always booting up raid or sata drivers when installing o/s

That's the only reason I have for keeping one, and even then I take it out of the case after installing the OS.
I use GMail for transferring documents between home & college, which is also a handy backup.

[kronas]

Originally Posted by Flubflow

A CDR actually costs less than a floppy these days so it is much less of a waste in monetary terms.
I'd still keep the trusty old floppy drive though.

with a floppy you can rewrite over it but with a cd-r you cant.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by kronas

with a floppy you can rewrite over it but with a cd-r you cant.

You can write data to the CD as multisession so have the ability to use one CD for the contents of several hundred floppies. Alternatively use CD/RW disks.

[altis]

I've just been getting a friend out of the mire by re-installing XP on his PC. He managed to blow up his mobo (almost literally - one of the diodes tried to unsolder itself).

I sorted him a new mobo, processor and memory. The new mobo uses an Nvidia chipset but the old one is Via-based. XP refused to boot - even in safe mode!!!

So he bought a new disk drive too - a SATA one and we tried re-installing XP on that instead. Now, here's the rub, his version of XP home (SP1) doesn't support his SATA chip so we had to load on the drivers. The *only* place that XP will look for them is on the floppy!!!!!

Jeeeeez - and this is progress?

[blackthorn]

I have to keep mine, I ve got a sony Mavica digital camera and the camera takes floppys. I know it might be getting old but its one of the best cameras I`ve had.

Floppy? What's one of those?

/strokes his iMac lovingly