Floppy Drive

[TBSN]

in that case, I think, for me, it would be best just to skip the floppy drive and just use a USB drive to boot from if for some reason the CD won't work.

Is there any reason, besides possibly installing drivers or booting which I can do from a USB drive, that I would need a floppy drive?

Thanks again....

 

[secretanchitman]

if you really needed a floppy, a usb one is a good way to go.

 

[TBSN]

OK, but if I can boot off of a flash drive, would there be any other reason that I NEED a floppy drive?

 

[amaunator]

Most floppy/media card drives come with a floppy connector for the disk section and a usb connector for the media card section.

 

[TBSN]

ahhh IC. But is it possible to boot off a flash drive and install drivers, etc. And if so, does that mean that there is no other reason for me to get a floppy drive?

What I mean is if I have a USB flash drive and a newish mother board, is there any important things that I will need to do with a floppy, that I cannot do with a USB flash drive?

 

[corkyg]

If your BIOS allows USB device boot, and you have no vested interest in on hand floppies full of data, etc., then you are probably in good shape to just use a bootable flash drive. And, you can always create a bootable CDR for trouble shooting such as the "Ultimate Boot CD."

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I have a USB floppy drive, and a good USB thumb drive. Takes care of anything I might need.

 

[TBSN]

OK, Thanks for clearing this up. BTW, do you have any info on making an "Ultimate Boot CD"? Is it just a bootable CD that allows you to checkdisk and things like that? Something like that would come in handy I bet....

 

[3LEMENT0]

I have one floppy for all the machines that I've built since the year 2000 (using it to boot, for drivers and when needed) very useful but not necessary for new machines that can boot via flash drive/USB/cd-rom. Before in the 90's it was essential but not anymore.

I just put it back on if there is some special think I need to use it for like some program that has to run on it but otherwise it's somewhere in the garage.

 

[GregMal]

I'm starting to put together a new PC build for Vista.
It will have a floppy drive (not USB).
It will have an LPT port.
It will have those little washers for the motherboard screws.
It will have a beige, yes, beige PC case.
.
I guess I'm just "old school".

 

[TBSN]

Is this what you meant by the Ultimate Boot CD? www.ultimatebootcd.com

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: TBSN
Is this what you meant by the Ultimate Boot CD? www.ultimatebootcd.com

yes.

 

[TBSN]

Ahh, very cool. I wish I had that earlier. I used to simply have myriad floppies with different things on them, which works, but the computer I'm building now should allow me to simply use CD's or flash drives.....

 

[Frintin]

2 computers here in my house.....


without floppy drives!

 

[shabby]

Dont copy that floppy...

 

[Bonesdad]

haven't had for 2 years, haven't missed once

 

[Scooby Doo]

Originally posted by: shabby
Dont copy that floppy...

Besides by the time it's finished copying it'll be corrupted anyways. :laugh:

 

[Skotty]

I had a floppy drive 15 years ago, and they sucked back then too. Please let them die. Thank you.

If you want one just in case, I might would look into the external idea.

Actually, I still keep a couple of internal LS-120 SuperDisk drives out of nostalgia (not currently installed), which could read regular floppy disks at twice the speed of most regular floppy drives, as well as special floppy disks with 120MB capacity. They connected via IDE. At the time I bought them, I was hoping they would lead towards a transition away from floppies. I'm always hoping something will kill off regular floppy drives, and looks like a combination of USB flash drives and heavy CD-R/DVD+/-R usage is finally killing them off, much to my pleasure. Floppy disks were slow, low capacity, and unreliable 10 years ago. They are even more so today. Die, floppies, DIE!

In another twist of irony, I actually have a need for a serial port, but my new motherboard doesn't have one.

 

[engiNURD]

Hehe, those of you still USING floppy drives just need to let go, lol. Its OK... just let go. Use an old one if you need it, but no need to buy a new one if building a new system.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: lobbyone
I have a floppy drive, best $5 add-on, but never used it once. lol

Same here. I just bought a black one from newegg for $6.25. I'll probably never use it but if I need it, it's there.