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Should I get a floppy disk drive?

G

gflores

Senior member
Dell has been offering their computers without a floppy drive for awhile now. Well, I realized I dont use floppy disks very often and when I do, I can always use a memory key instead (which i intend on getting if I don't get floppy drive). Should I just pay the $20 for the drive, in case I do need it later on, or are floppy drives becoming old?
 
I still use mine for the occasional BIOS flash... some software will make recovery disks for you too, so that's something to think about.
 
My main gaming doesn't have a floppy. I created a boot disk on CD prior to me removing it permanantly (actually, I needed it for another work machine I was building so I cannibalized the part). Haven't missed it so far, but considering the low cost, it's convenient to have so long as you can put up with the extra cables cluttering up the inside of your case. I personally don't think the floppy will go away for a long time. It's still got it's uses.
 
A floppy drive can be a life saver when there's something wrong with hard drives or with a controller, you often need it for bios flashes and the like, and it's very hard to install XP on a RAID or SCSI drive without having drivers on a floppy. For $6 (newegg), it's definitely something I add in every system.
 
Here's what I dont understand... why would it be _so hard_ to create a standard for bootable flash media so we don't have to mess around with these miserable floppies anymore? I mean come on... 1.44mb, incredibly slow, extremely unreliable... if I could replace these with an 8mb SmartMedia card I'd be ecstatic. Does anyone know if such a standard is in the works?
 
Hmm I still use a 5.25 floppy drive... lol it's really kind of just there too look funny and make my computer more original, but yeah u sohuld have a 3 1/2 floppy good for biosflash or other ocasional things, u can find one for around 8 bucks on pricewatch.com
 
Eventually it will happen that the floppy will disappear. It won't be too soon IMO though. It works well, it's easy, and it is proven (albeit old) technology.

\Dan
 
Even though floppies are old and outdated, everyone's got them. It can be useful once in a while, if you just wanna transport a small file quickly.
 
I had this debate too...floppies can really come in handy if someone comes over and brings a disk. I really wish we could get rid of them though
 
Yeah, just get it. It'll end up bein guseful sooner or later. Even if you get a pen drive, key, whatever you call it, those can be lost pretty easily. Floppies OTOH, can be lost, but its nto that big of a deal.

Also, if you ever have people over to your house, chances are eventually someone will bring something on a floppy assuming you h ave a floppy drive... just get it

Oh, and are you still in school? While in school its really useful because someof the labs don't allow sending it your e-mail but only let you use a floppy...
 
If you don't get one, there will definitely be that one time that you desperately need it. If you do get it, then you will never use the thing.

When I first built my computer, I put a floppy in it. Got a new case, and didn't bother to transfer over the floppy drive because I had never used it. 3 days later I needed to make a boot disk for an older computer I was repairing. Just go ahead and get one.
 
Ok, all people seem to be saying yes. I guess I agree with you guys, but I also agree with "lameaway." I just wish there was something better than a floppy. The floppy hardly holds anything and it's incredibly slow. I can't wait until I see the 144mb floppys, lol. 🙂 Thanks for all your responses.
 
Originally posted by: gflores
Ok, all people seem to be saying yes. I guess I agree with you guys, but I also agree with "lameaway." I just wish there was something better than a floppy. The floppy hardly holds anything and it's incredibly slow. I can't wait until I see the 144mb floppys, lol. 🙂 Thanks for all your responses.
Click to expand...

Well, there is actually. And it's also backwards compatible with regular 1.44mb floppies, but I personally don't think it's worth the money and it's questionable as to whether or not the support is going to be there for long.

120mb SuperDisk

You can get them as an internal or external drive in place of a floppy, but only in the aftermarket arena (they're a legacy product now).
 
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