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Just curious on what others think. I have been building systems for quite awhile and I am considering losing the floppy drive. With Windows XP or 2000 and bootable cd-rom's, what is the need? I never see software on floppy anymore and cdrw's are perfect for random
storage. It's one less cable in the old comp case and one less draw on the power supply. Anyone else try this yet and how is it working out?
It would be okay for me because I can generally email myself documents so that I can open them at university.. but I always find that something will come up where you wish you had a floppy.
but also with windows 2000 or xp, if you use an ide, ide-raid, or scsi controller to run your system drive, you need to install the drivers for that controller off a floppy...setup won't let you do it any other way. i, for one use this setup, therefore i'm stuck with a floppy drive. occasionally i have to turn assignments to certain professors on floppy as well.
what is wrong with spending 8 bucks on drive that no one has yet 100% completely destroyed from being a standard part on the PC.
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Originally posted by richardginn
what is wrong with spending 8 bucks on drive that no one has yet 100% completely destroyed from being a standard part on the PC.
word. Senario: You work on an english paper for 4 days, decide you are going to print it next morning. Well it's next morning already, your pc says that no MBR was found. You're like what the heck!? Well, you have a handy boot floppy to get to the command prompt, but wait! No floppy in your system! Just buy one dude, install it, and if you don't want to have it operational, still just buy one, screw it in to the case, but you don't have to connect it. Whenever you need it, just plug in the cables. Win/Win situation.
yeah I decided I wasn't going to install a floppy on my new rig...until I wanted to flash my BIOS. I tried the "live bios" and flashing from within windows but the true and still best way to do it is in DOS! hence: I have a floppy now :D
on one of my systems I didn't have a floppy drive it in for a long time, I eventually went out and found one cheap just to fill the empty slot in the case, I never really needed it though.
If you have something small, a floppy is the perfect way to transport it instead of waisting a whole CD for 5kb. It also takes less time, burning can take a few minutes just for that 5kb file to be burned and finilized on a cd. Im sure their will be sometime in the future of that computer that the floppy will come in use. They are still standard with 99% of pc's. Mac's on the other hand usualy don't come standard with floppies anymore, but zip drives. Conclusion: To cheap not to have one.
-andy
It's the essence of my life lol
I wouldn't be able to live w/o it, seeing my NIC has the drivers on a floppy, and I flash my VGA, and Mobo bios every chance I get (new bios, modified, etc.)
I keep mine out of my case so there are less wires... but it's close at hand for emergencies and bios flashes.:)
The only thing that has a good chance of replacing floppies is USBKey drives, so long as every system you come in contact with has at least Windows 2000. A few have a lot of space, too, so that would also drop a few instances of using CDR's.
Only downside is that they're not bootable.
The only things I ever expect to need a FDD for is flashing my video card's bios (no need to use it for mobo bios, since Asus uses the utility that allows you to flash bios in windows) and booting to DOS for things like fdisking. :)
I have mine turned around so I access it from inside the case. From the outside you wouldn't even know its there. You actually have to open the case door to put a disk in.
Only ever use it for flashing bios and when I really mangle my computer and need to boot off a floppy.
Cheers,
i got rid of that legacy *** bs when win2k came out
I thought I had gotten rid of mine permanently until I had to use my desktop to make a startup floppy for my laptop. :(
Wouldn't matter. If I write a paper, I immediately send it to multiple personal FTP sites and a couple of e-mail addresses because I don't trust floppies and I don't put all my trust into one or two internet sites. I've almost completely bred out floppies from my computing arsenal. i still have I think one drive, but that's between like 6 computers.Quote:
Originally posted by mrspm2003
word. Senario: You work on an english paper for 4 days, decide you are going to print it next morning. Well it's next morning already, your pc says that no MBR was found. You're like what the heck!? Well, you have a handy boot floppy to get to the command prompt, but wait! No floppy in your system! Just buy one dude, install it, and if you don't want to have it operational, still just buy one, screw it in to the case, but you don't have to connect it. Whenever you need it, just plug in the cables. Win/Win situation.
My mobo (Epox 8KHA+) can with a dead FDD controller, and I'm too lazy to RMA it, so I'm stuck without one. But I'm not really stuck as I've never needed to use it.
Ashpool has a good point, those key drives are becoming more and more useful. I've heard that they can hold up to 1GB on a single key! Imagine 1 GB of data dangling off your key chain. :) But for now a floppy couldn't hurt. For driver purposes, and for backing up small docs. You never know, the e-mail server might go down when something is due. Then you can't recieve the e-mail with the attachment. Just my opinion anyways.:)
I have not used a floppy for over 5 years. I still have one in the spare parts bin but I have no place to install it. Win XP and Win NET have virtually every disk controller driver built into the distribution media. The exception may be in some high end RAID U320 controllers.
I ordered a new notebook computer today. It doesn't come with a floppy. If you need to use one it must dangle at the end of a dongle.
I'm no expert (don't even know how to flash my BIOS) but When I built my first rig, I went without a floppy and havn't had any problems. I got lucky tho, my NIC came with a CD but the one I picked up for my roommate only had floppy (he's got one)Quote:
Originally posted by Hypo_Luxa
Anyone else try this yet and how is it working out?
If its for you, keep it on the side for future use or backwards like Casper1612 and TAZTG have. If you build for others...once its built, what are they gonna use it for? (I know, I know - small files)
Floppy drives are a must have! Business still use it because it is a cheap format, and the disks themselves are dead cheap. Also, schools still use floppys, so if you have an essay, a floppy is needed.
Personally I just email things to myself (or upload it to my netfirms ftp). I do have a floppy drive in my computer, but it's only because I needed a floppy drive to load the raid controllers in order to install winXP. Also, my roommate seems to love floppies and he sometimes uses my computer.
Floppies are so unreliable, that I'd never use one unless I was absolutely forced to. (Of course I needed one to flash my video card recently.) do you guys serious use them to carry around files? I remember doing that in college and the disks were constantly DOA whenever I needed them.Quote:
Originally posted by AverageJoe
Personally I just email things to myself (or upload it to my netfirms ftp). I do have a floppy drive in my computer, but it's only because I needed a floppy drive to load the raid controllers in order to install winXP. Also, my roommate seems to love floppies and he sometimes uses my computer.
Floppies suck.
Freakboy
Indeed. It seems like more and more floppies nowadays develop bad sectors after just a little use.
My current computer has a floppy drive, but I've never connected it. What's the point?
You need it for BIOS flashes, but not necessary if you pick a platform that's already fully mature (I'm using a PIII-Tualatin).
I could see maybe moving files around the office or turning in assignments at school, but can't CDRs be used much more conveniently for this?
The CDR is the new floppy disk.
I don't have a floppy and have no regrets.