floppy drive moratorium

[Rude_Dog]

It often goes unnoticed anymore (probably from lack of use), but what is the need for the floppy drive anymore? While all other aspects of cosumer based PCs have advanced, we are still tethered to a technology that can only hold up to 1.44 MB at a time. Most email attachments are larger than that now. I just recently built a new machine and not once during OS installation and configuration did i have to use the archaic device. So why in the world does it still exist?? Why is the floppy drive such an afterthought that even big OEMs don't even offer something new? If there needs to be a device like a floppy for a PC to run, then i suggest a move to internal media card slots. What does anyone else think?

Rude_Dog


No time for the old in-out, love. I've just come to read the meter.

 

[elzt]

why in the world does it still exist?

Coz it's cheap, but I think the 3.5" floppy drive will become extinct soon just like its bigger brother 5.25" floppy.

 

[svol]

It is slowly dying... but I still use if for diagnostic pre-boot tools (ie Memtest86) and BIOS flashing.

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole

 

[JimmyDean]

LOL I use my floppy all the time. Usually when I need to transfer stuff. I once transfered a 120 mb game with 2 disks...

<b><font color=red>Remember kids, if you see a downed power line, suck on the end, candy comes out!</font color=red></b>

 

[jihiggs]

they are still usefull for many things. they are much more practicle for things like batch files. i use them a lot at work, sometimes getting to a network recourse is too much work so i just load the batch file off a floppy, it is much faster than a cd. it takes time to open a cd rom, so its just faster to run some things from floppy. with bios flashes, they are not very big so a floppy is still sufficient. and its a LOT easyer to access a floppy drive from a simple bios boot to load an image to the bios chip. a cd rom requires drivers to be able to use it, thats just too much for a simple boot to flash a bios.

<font color=red> black </font color=red> <font color=green> white </font color=green> <font color=blue> yellow </font color=blue> <font color=orange> purple </font color=orange> <font color=black> red </font color=black> <font color=yellow> green </font color=yellow> <font color=purple> blue </font color=purple>

 

[Rude_Dog]

I really don't buy any of that, jihiggs. By using media cards to replace the floppy drive, you would still be able to run all your batch and script files. Plus, the media card would work faster than a floppy drive would. All kinds of devices use media cards so i would think that a BIOS would be able to do the same without too much hassle. So, to me, there is still no need for floppy drives or their archaic media.

Rude_Dog



No time for the old in-out, love. I've just come to read the meter.

 

[coolsquirtle]

the things is not everyone is used to media cards, everyone is used to floppys, floppys are great for all ages of computer and useful to carry homework around for me. You still need floppys to make start up boot disk in Norton Ghost, flashing BIOS, MEMTEST, HDD diagnose, drivers and not everyone new motherboard out there supports media cards/mini HDD boot method. besides take SD card for example hmm $100 for a 128mb SD for boot up file or 10 floppy that costs $5 that does the same thing

Proud Owner the Block Heater
120% Nvidia Fanboy
Athlon 64......nForce 3, it sure sucks when you can't afford things. One day Operton Servers will cost less than $4000 so everyone can get one

 

[Crashman]

A lot of old machines can't read CDRW. Let alone write to it. I use my floppy to transfer small files when I don't feel like wasting off a 25 cent CD-R.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[jihiggs]

a unerversal connection for those media cards is some kind of usb or even firewire connection. it takes time for them to be detected by windows and 99% of all bios' dont support either connection type nativly. i dont see a standard digital card reader on every computer.

<font color=red> black </font color=red> <font color=green> white </font color=green> <font color=blue> yellow </font color=blue> <font color=orange> purple </font color=orange> <font color=black> red </font color=black> <font color=yellow> green </font color=yellow> <font color=purple> blue </font color=purple>

 

[svol]

Well my floppies became usefull again this day while flashing a BIOS, and installing newer NIC drivers on multiple PCs.

And as Crashman said floppies are really usefull in old systems... or systems where the CDROM doesn't work without a NIC.

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole

 

[alltaken]

havn't used mine yet. still sitting around doing nothing!!!!!!!




Alltaken

 

[svol]

Use it to put some viruses on floppies and give that to people you hate... succes garuenteed!

My CPU fan spins so fast that it creates a wormhole

 

[alltaken]

the people i hate are so dumb it would probably work!!!!!!!

ha ha ha

oh and most of them have virus ridden computers coz they don't know what VIRUS SOFTWARE and FIREWALLS are for.





Alltaken

 

[lhgpoobaa]

mostly firmware flashes, bios flashes, and proggies like memtest, goldmem and hard drive diagnostic utilites.

apart from that it sits idle.

<b>Melb_angel: PooBaa's <A HREF="http://www.secretarythemovie.com" target="_new">Secretary!</A></b>