do you guys still use Floppies?

[computerABUSER]

Hi
I'm about to upgrade my old AGP mobo system to the current PCI-E standard and also thinking about going to SATA since I have only been using IDE HDDs.

However, I hate Floppies and my last couple of builds have been Floppyless
so if I was to go SATA do I have to install a floppy to load the mobos drivers for it and if not how do you guys do it then?

Can I just go to the mobos web page and then DL the drivers and burn them on a CD?

Thanks everyone...

Regards,
CA

 

[evilharp]

I love my floppy drive

it makes me soo happy....

Seriously, the floppy is useful. If you have one, use it.

With WinXP and the F6 install for drivers, you can only use the floppy. This limitation will probably be removed for Vista, but probably not.

Alternatives:

1) use your floppy for the install, then remove it.
2) create a slipstream install disk.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Used one last night to update a BIOS!

But need something more up-to-date? Consider this product from Mitsumi. It's both a standard floppy AND a USB 2.0 6-in-1 card reader.

I own two and they fit my needs quite nicely.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I keep a FDD around, just not installed. My last couple of boards have been nV based with native SATA that doesn't require F6ing. I do sometimes use the FDD for bios flashing though.

 

[evilharp]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
But need something more up-to-date? Consider this product from Mitsumi. It's both a standard floppy AND a USB 2.0 6-in-1 card reader.

:thumbsup: I have the same drive, works awesome!

 

[computerABUSER]

Thanks guys,

2) create a slipstream install disk.

whats that ???

My last couple of boards have been nV based with native SATA that doesn't require F6ing.

I presume that means the Nvidia NForce4-mobos? if so that is what I will be getting.

a standard floppy AND a USB 2.0 6-in-1 card reader.

WOW! that is nice, and my other expensive as hell hobby is digital photography which uses
a CF card for storing the snapshots..hmmmm, seems like a very good x-tra

Regards,
CA

 

[computerABUSER]

Oops, a question, does the card reader connect to a USB2 pin as my CF cards are usually full and large so I need to use a USB connector for faster DLs.

Regards,
CA

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: computerABUSER
Oops, a question, does the card reader connect to a USB2 pin as my CF cards are usually full and large so I need to use a USB connector for faster DLs.

Regards,
CA

The drive has the same data and power cables that all internal floppies do. The attached reader has an internal USB cable. Go to the link above and look at the picture.

BTW, ZZF sells the same drive for less

 

[evilharp]

The Mitsumi (mine does at least) drive uses the standard FDD cable for the floppy + a USB2 header for the card reader.

Slipstreaming an install CD is an elegant approach to customizing your XP install process (add service packs, drivers, etc. even remove some bloat (advanced)). It is not easy. See: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1626

There are some "applications" that can automate the process, and make it easier to do.

 

[SynthDude2001]

I use my floppy drive about once a year (to install Serial ATA drivers when I reinstall Windows; I've never bothered to create a slipstreamed CD).

 

[wanderer27]

Just grab a LS-120 off Ebay for about $10-15. You can read/write regular Floppies and SuperDisk 120 (120Mb) - lot quicker than burning a CD/DVD.

 

[computerABUSER]

Well, it looks like I'll be getting that *all-n-1* floppy then
btw, how much faster/better is a SATA vs a PATA? I guess I'll do that too, can I use my two ide HDDs and a new SATA?

Thanks,
CA

 

[Peter]

If the board's BIOS is doing everything right, you could also use a USB floppy drive. However, with the current state of affairs in Windows XP installation, it's GOT to be a floppy - no USB sticks, no CDs, no card readers or anything like that.

I still have a legacy FDD in my system, and also, I have a special USB stick that installs two device instances - one pretending to be a FDD.

 

[theMan]

its so nice to have a floppy, because you can put stuff on there so quickly. just copy and paste, as opposed to a cd where you have to burn. the only replacement for a floppy is a usb thumb drive or something. but, you still cant use those for like bios's and drivers and stuff.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: computerABUSER
Hi
I'm about to upgrade my old AGP mobo system to the current PCI-E standard and also thinking about going to SATA since I have only been using IDE HDDs.

However, I hate Floppies and my last couple of builds have been Floppyless
so if I was to go SATA do I have to install a floppy to load the mobos drivers for it and if not how do you guys do it then?

Can I just go to the mobos web page and then DL the drivers and burn them on a CD?

Thanks everyone...

Regards,
CA

If you go AMD, and use Nvidia's nForce4 chipset, the SATA is native to the board, so you do not need the floppy for Windows installation. You only need the floppy if you (1) set up RAID, or (2) use a motherboard with another manufacturers SATA controller on it (Silicon Image) and have the hard drive hooked up to that controller for installation.

The nForce4 chipset is so user friendly, you dont even need the nVidia software drivers for the IDE/SATA controller in Windows (other users have opted to do this and use the standard Windows drivers instead of the nVidia drivers - There have been a few issues )

 

[Peter]

The difference for whether you need proprietary drivers or not lies in the SATA channel's programming model. If it's running in "legacy IDE" mode, then the Windows standard PCI IDE driver will know what to do. If the SATA channel is in "Native PCI" mode, then you'll need a driver.

Legacy IDE mode is possible only for those SATA channels that are inside the core chipset, not for discrete PCI or PCIE controller chips. Also, you can't have more than two controller units in legacy IDE mode at any given time.

 

[computerABUSER]

thanks guys for the explanation, so why is SATA better?

Regards,
CA

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: computerABUSER
thanks guys for the explanation, so why is SATA better?

Regards,
CA

hmm...
only thing I have noticed is the smaller cable...
I only have a first generation SATA 150 drive though, without NCQ...

I'm sure someone on the forums here can provide more input on if it is truly "better" or not..
There is also SATA 3.0G, with NCQ..

 

[Peter]

SATA is primarily about the physically better cable, and smaller connector footprint on both ends. On top of that, you get hot plugging capability and native command queuing (a performance enhancement), which make the technology more suitable to entry level servers than IDE was. The higher interface data rate is of no use whatsoever, given current drive technology, but has enough headroom for what's yet to come.

 

[computerABUSER]

Thank again,

ok, now what is NCQ? sorry for all of the stupid newbie questions. I've actaully built many computers for me and my friends and family, howeve, it was always with
the standard AGP, ide hardware.

so a couple of weeks agao I built a computer for my friends brother and I used todays tech stuff; asus 939 pci-e sli-mobo (only one card though) pci-e video card. So after building that
I realized that its time for me to get on the 939mobo pci-e 'bus' so I started with the crash-course of reading eveything in all of the forums here at anandtech

so thats why I'm bombarding you all with these newbie questions well, I don't think that I will get a SATA HDD yet since my are fairly new but I WILL get a mobo that has it so I can upgrade when my Primary drive gives up the ghost

Btw, here's what I am strongly thinking about getting so please feel free to point me in the right direction if I'm doing it wrong, thanks:

GA-K8N Pro-SLI

MSI NX7800GTX Geforce 7800GTX

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 4000+

Although, the cpu selection is definetly not a solid choice as from what I've read here and there on the web, it seems the 3800+ is at the same speed. So I thought about getting that one instead, but the main reason that I am thinking about the 4000 instead of a 3800 is just because it has the larger number...sounds stupid I know <sigh!>

Regards,
CA

 

[tcsenter]

As much as I hate the idea of using a removable storage device that has been around in its current state nearly as long as I've been alive, you hardly can beat the damned floppy for certain things! I still use an internal floppy disk on my builds, but also have a USB floppy drive. I have some 32MB ~ 64MB USB thumb drives around here that I got for free, but still haven't learned how to use them as a floppy.

The industry should have tried moving to an inexpensive 10MB ~ 12MB drive and disk instead of trying to make the huge (and problematic) leap to 100MB and 120MB (Zip Drive and LS120 SuperDisk), which were way too expensive to compete with the floppy, particularly since recordable CD was hitting the market in mass production around the same time and was a more 'sexy' technology to spend your money on. I paid $130 (after $50 rebate) for the first gen LS120 and $100 for a first gen internal ZIP100 drive. Both had early design flaws and all the disks I purchased for both went bad within six months.

The floppy was (and still is to some extent) ideal for small jobs where not more than three to five disks were needed for a particular purpose, but who had 60 ~ 80 floppies that they needed to consolidate onto one disk? People stopped using floppies for general storage or backup long ago.

 

[Steve]

NCQ

 

[computerABUSER]

hehe, I guess I'm the only one who hates floppies then.

 

[2kfire]

Just wanna put in my 2 cents: I have to use a floppy cuz of my RAID. For SATA, if it's on the chipset, don't need drivers. If it's an add-on chip, u need drivers and they have to be installed from a floppy IF you are installing windows on that drive. If you install windows on a P-ata drive then you can just pop in the SATA drive and install the drivers through windows. The hard part can be figuring out which SATA ports are native and which ones use an add-on chip

 

[ITPaladin]

Just used floppy for Memtest. That's about it in the last year.