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Any reason to still have a floppy drive in a modern pc?

StinkyPinky

StinkyPinky

Diamond Member
I don't think I've used my one in well over a year. Is there any reason to put one in a new build? Does any hardware still ship with drivers still on floppies?
 
Some people still prefer to use the floppy method to update their BIOS. (Most modern motherboards should come with a Windows-based BIOS updater, but some people don't trust them.)
 
In addition to Windows-based methods, motherboards are now allowing BIOS updated via USB memory stick. I think, but I'm not sure, that the same is true for installing RAID drivers and such during a Windows install.
 
I don't know if this is so much a question of the PC being modern or not. I think it's more of a question of the OS. I can install windows xp or vista on the same machine...vista will let me use a usb memory stick to load the drivers from but xp will make me use a floppy.
 
... or you can plan ahead and burn your own custom ISO with whatever drivers you need integrated on the CD.

And that's only if you actually have a RAID array, or are running your SATA drives in AHCI / RAID mode (without a true RAID array)

I haven't had a floppy drive in my PC for about 7 years now...

~MiSfit
 
I haven't used a floppy drive in any of my builds for about 8 years now. Havne't encountered a single situation in wish I needed one.
 
Originally posted by: nerp
I haven't used a floppy drive in any of my builds for about 8 years now. Havne't encountered a single situation in wish I needed one.
Click to expand...

Same here. I don't remember the last time I've needed to use a floppy. I did, however, use zip disks on a regular basis doing some graphic design work a few years ago. This was quite unfortunate because I hate the unreliable pieces of junk.
 
I took mine out and put a hard drive in its place. I guess the only downside I can see is that I can no longer install those Lucas Arts games like Monkey Island.
 
Most likely you will never need the floppy, however what I do is install the media card reader that also includes a floppy built in - just in case. 15 - 20 dollars at the computer shows.
 
Not really. I ditched the floppy drive 3 years ago and never looked back. Actually just reinstalled XP today and the install went flawlessly without a floppy drive. If you need drivers or something burn em to a CD and boot off the CD. Better yet slipstream them into your Windows install.
 
Most folks probably don't need them anymore.

I use them pretty frequently, to install RAID controller drivers, to update the BIOS, and on my own PC to CREATE the floppy disks for those two tasks.

When the whole world moves to Vista/2008, I'll be happy to dump those floppy drives. Unfortunately, that's going to be a few more years.
 
occasionally you need them. some hard drive diagnostics work better off floppy. or bios updates for certain boards. or software like say ghost or partiion magic can also make use of a floppy.


if you have more than one computer, i'd just get a usb floppy as most new bios will treat it just like a normal one. then you can just get it out for any of the computers if you ever need it. a usb floppy doesnt cost much different than a normal internal floppy anyway (that and you dont need to have any ribbon cables in your computer if you go all sata with no floppy)_
 
Most modern notebooks do not have floppy drive anymore so if notebook need bios update they usually use windows to update bios.
My PC still have floppy drive but not used very often.
 
Most people will never use a floppy drive ever again - however, they are very cheap and if you ever run into a situation you need one, it's better to have the drive than to not.
 
I have a usb floppy that I got free with a laptop. I can boot off of it when I need to and use it for whatever computer I need it for. The can be had for pretty cheap if you look around plus it can be used on almost anything.
 
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