Dell Saying Bye to Floppy Disk Drives

[Dedpuhl]

Text

 

[Beau]

Good. It's well past the time to let the floppy die. I haven't had a floppy in 2 years, don't think I've even used one in 3.

 

[Viper GTS]

Not a good move, IMHO.

I still use my floppy every now & then, & my roommate has had to steal mine several times after abandoning the floppy with his latest system build.

They still have their purpose, although the majority of what I use them for the average end user wouldn't be doing...

So maybe for Dell it would be OK.

Viper GTS

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Fine with me, as long as they don't start making their systems in five fruity colours, calling then "flavours" and charging about 2x what the components are work.

- M4H

 

[vi edit]

I'm not fond of it. From a cost effective and convenience stand point, you can't beat a floppy drive to transfer a couple word docs from one unetworked computer to another.

And regardless to what some people say, floppy disks are quite resilient. I've got disks from 6 years ago that I still use to transfer stuff around. That includes being dropped, flung, smashed, and battered throughout the years.

CDR(W)'s are more expensive, may require special software to use, and aren't universally read in all drives.
Compact flash is more expensive, and I question the long term durability of the readers and media after a card yanked in and out of them a couple times a day 20 days a month, 12 days a year, for a couple years time.

 

[Nitemare]

I have not used the floppy since my programming class over a year ago.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

i use 'em all the time!!!! freakin!.....i'm too lazy to email documents to myself to open 'em up in another computer...and i use fdisk, flash bios, flash drives...etcetc all the time...and u always need it just incase ur hdd goes "dude i hate u now i die!"

 

[MercenaryForHire]

USB floppy drives.

- M4H

 

[Ready]

how do you boot up a blank computer without a floppy?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Ready
how do you boot up a blank computer without a floppy?

Bootable CDROM's.

 

[Maverick2002]

Once USB pen drives drop down in price they will be THE new floppy.

 

[BadNewsBears]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
i use 'em all the time!!!! freakin!.....i'm too lazy to email documents to myself to open 'em up in another computer...and i use fdisk, flash bios, flash drives...etcetc all the time...and u always need it just incase ur hdd goes "dude i hate u now i die!"

Best Post EVAR

 

[Mrfrog840]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
Fine with me, as long as they don't start making their systems in five fruity colours, calling then "flavours" and charging about 2x what the components are work.

- M4H

damn you reminded me of that spell check thread last night

 

[TheVrolok]

I'm not a huge fan of the removal of floppies just yet .. I still use mine occasionaly when I need to do things.. or when I'm building a system of course.. but I guess the average user wouldn't need to do these things ... but .. I would hate it if a friend of mine called me up and needed me to come over and fix his comp if he didn't have a floppy..

 

[nord1899]

Haven't used a floppy in at least 2 years so I have no problem with it.

Although I do see floppy's as still being useful, just not to the crowd Dell caters to.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: Ready
how do you boot up a blank computer without a floppy?

Bootable CDROM's.

can you boot from one of those USB storage things?

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Maverick2002
Once USB pen drives drop down in price they will be THE new floppy.

Not until they are bootable, and universal - ie The BIOS can masquerade it as a floppy so that any OS I want to use can read it.

Viper GTS

 

[Ryan]

Almost ever kid who goes to public school has to use Floppies, and many teachers in colleges use them still. The crowd that Dell caters to DOES need floppies.

They should be like Gateway - give the buyer an option to remove the drive.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Almost ever kid who goes to public school has to use Floppies, and many teachers in colleges use them still. The crowd that Dell caters to DOES need floppies.

They should be like Gateway - give the buyer an option to remove the drive.

They'll probably provide the option to add it back.....for like $50.

I still use floppies all the time.

amish

 

[NutBucket]

I put a floppy back in my computer b/c I couldn't get XP to work without it (must have been a BIOS config problem). Now that its in there, mounted on the back no less, I've never touched it. I have a zip and dvd+rw. Combined with broadband, that's all the transfering I need.

 

[Maverick2002]

We're never gonna port over to new technology so long as we keep promoting the old.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
USB floppy drives.

- M4H

you cant boot of them, can you?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: MaxDSP

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
USB floppy drives.

- M4H

you cant boot of them, can you?

/powers on his SFF PC
/boots from USB floppy

Yup.

I haven't even used a boot floppy in ages though. I just use bootable CDs. Even my 98SE I made bootable.

- M4H

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: MaxDSP

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
USB floppy drives.

- M4H

you cant boot of them, can you?

Many times you can.

But I'd bet money that an external USB floppy drive costs SIGNIFICANTLY more than the $3 that Dell probably pays for their floppy drives.

Viper GTS

 

[notfred]

Getting rid of floppies is fine by me. Just have to make boot CDs instead for bios updates.