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floppy drives

I still find that I use floppies on occasion. Mostly for BIOS updates (which, yes, a lot of new boards allow you to flash with a USB drive or in Windows), and creating Ghost boot floppies. Otherwise, that's about all I use them for.
I can say that I try to put a floppy drive in each system I own. Just because I'm used to them I suppose.

 
Required, not often. Handy to have if you've got the space? Certainly. At the very least, have a drive and cable in your spare parts box even if you don't want it in your system. If you've got an empty bay, you may as well put the drive in it, and bundle the cable up out of the way and unplugged or just leave it out if you're worried about airflow or prettiness. If you end up running into a need for one, isn't it easier to just have it ready to work than spend time searching for workarounds?

Maybe one day there'll be another universally bootable, portable, universally compatible device/function, but the floppy may still be around for a long time. Floppies are the only thing that you can pretty much use as long as you minimally have power. You can flash a BIOS in most cases without even being able to get video output, let alone POST and initialize USB or a hard drive or optical drive, as long as you've got a floppy drive. Perhaps if we move along to EFI or something, they'll manage to add in code that allows you to run some other bootable device in the same way.
 
I haven't used one in over 4 years. I hate the damned things. Just hearing the obnoxious sound they make raises my blood pressure 😀 I feel the same way about floppies that link19 feels about Win98, I'm just not quite as vociferous :laugh:
 
Without launching into a pedantic discourse, no. I haven't had to use one in nearly 3 years.

I do use them now and then for accessing old floppy data disks. I then consolidate them onto CDRs. Eventually, they will all be gone. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.

 
I still use them. Good for small files on sneakernet. I use a thumbdrive for a lot of temp files, but if I want to keep them (list of logins and passwords for sites for example), I use a floppy. I use them for things like Ghost, utilities for zapping the MBR, booting into a DOS enviornment to get rid of stubborn files, etc..
 
You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.
 
I have a bunch of drives and disks in a box so if I ever need them I have them. I didn't spend the $10 on a black floppy drive to match my case because it wasn't worth it to me - I've only used a floppy in my computer once since I built it. I used that $10 towards a card reader instead which I use a LOT.
 
Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.
Click to expand...

my high school has no floppy drives in the media center. In additon, every computer has a dvd+/- rw drive.
 
Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch
Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.
Click to expand...

my high school has no floppy drives in the media center. In additon, every computer has a dvd+/- rw drive.
Click to expand...

That's fine, but not all schools are like that. The college I attend uses floppy drives.
 
I never used mine, so I took mine out w/ the cable attached. If I ever need it I will just grab it out've my parts box and hook it up. I doubt I will need it though.
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.
Click to expand...

You still need a floppy drive to actually use the drivers during install. That can be avoided by slipstreaming the drivers into the install CD.
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.
Click to expand...

So you take out the windows install CD during install (at the F6 prompt) and put in the SATA driver CD, that never worked in the past.

Is that how you do it ?
 
Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
I have a bunch of drives and disks in a box so if I ever need them I have them. I didn't spend the $10 on a black floppy drive to match my case because it wasn't worth it to me - I've only used a floppy in my computer once since I built it. I used that $10 towards a card reader instead which I use a LOT.
Click to expand...
Two birds with one stone here

 
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