the amazing 3.5" floppy... how long more...?

[WeiWei]

Hey guys, I was reading through the "Hall Of Fame" thread and noticed many who mentioned the 3.5" floppy and that made me think.

Isn't it amazing how this little invention survived through computer world's frenzy "new tech every 6 months" cycle ? Ever since it got on computers, it became a standard feature, a must have, right until today, and I would say for many years to come.

Isn't it suprising how this is the only computer part that did not become outdated ?

Well, Darwin's evolution theory sure didn't work here... neither did Moore's law...

What do you guys think ? How long more do you think the 3.5" floppy disk can survive ?

 

[blodhi74]

another 2 to 3 years while thumb drives phase out floppies IMHO

 

[WobbleWobble]

Moore's law applies to integrated circuits specifically so you can't use Moore's law on floppy drives.
And I thought Darwin's theory of evolution applied to biological things? Floppies did evolve over time gaining capacity, however.

How long before new computers stop coming with floppies? Probably 2 or so years as my guess as it doesn't hurt to have a floppy drive, but people still use it. There are alternatives but floppies are still relatively cheap. Migratring between storage formats is a PITA, that's my main reason for floppies staying so long. CDs and DVDs will remain compatible for years to come as well.

 

[goossedump]

i haven't used a floppy drive in my system since 2000 or so...

 

[Cerb]

Floppies survived like faxes.
AFAIAC, from the dawn of the PII to the socket Athlon, floppies were good for drivers. Around the time of the socket Athlon to now, they are good for BIOS updates. That's it. As soon as 4x CD burners came out and CDRs came to uder $1, I considered floppies obsolete.
But like faxes, to this day, every prof requires I have papers and such on a floppy with me. Let's see, between my dad smoking and my cat shedding, floppies are extremely unreliable. They aren't physically durable, either.
So far only a couple have complained with my use of the much more reliable FTP .

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Moore's law applies to integrated circuits specifically so you can't use Moore's law on floppy drives.
And I thought Darwin's theory of evolution applied to biological things? Floppies did evolve over time gaining capacity, however.

How long before new computers stop coming with floppies? Probably 2 or so years as my guess as it doesn't hurt to have a floppy drive, but people still use it. There are alternatives but floppies are still relatively cheap. Migratring between storage formats is a PITA, that's my main reason for floppies staying so long. CDs and DVDs will remain compatible for years to come as well.

Dude...Dell has already been charging for floppy drives for awhile now. I can go to sames and pick up any of the loss-leader machines, and I bet only 1 in 4 will have floppies (last I went, they had 3, and 1 HP had a floppy...the other HP and the eMachine didn't).
Laptops no longer come with floppy drives either. Floppies should have died even earlier, but IOmega sucks.

 

[vegetation]

It's already fading away albeit slowly. Very hard to buy a laptop these days that has an internal floppy for example; and few people are going to fork over extra money to buy an external usb-type floppy (the very concept seems insane to me). Still, floppies will linger strongly for a few more years as many schools use computers that are on average five years old. I have no doubt that by 2010 the 3.5" floppy will be gone for good.

 

[Sheriff]

They'll probably go out when the PS2 Ports do. I think some Mobo's have elimanated the already

 

[WobbleWobble]

There are still a good number of laptops still have internal floppies. While they are fading, they definately aren't gone yet.

 

[MajinWade]

There is still a use for them. Floppy's are extremely convenient to use on an oscilloscope or other scientic equipment. They will not go away until that is switched to something else.

 

[ferrarifreak93]

I don't think floppy drives will disappear for a while because they serve their purpose better than any other storage format. They are the most compatible and they're the easiest to use. Well, only if you are transfering a small file that is.

 

[Abhi]

If only i had a penny for everytime a flopy died on me ... with my data on it...

 

[Bovinicus]

I recently tried to setup a computer for a friend without a floppy drive. I actually ended up having to install a floppy drive to get the Windows 2000 install program to recognize the SATA controller.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
I recently tried to setup a computer for a friend without a floppy drive. I actually ended up having to install a floppy drive to get the Windows 2000 install program to recognize the SATA controller.

I still use them for reasons like this.

 

[Sunner]

Haven't used one in years, couldn't be happier.
If I ever need to flash a BIOS from DOS, I'll do it with a boot CD.

 

[Mem]

What do you guys think ? How long more do you think the 3.5" floppy disk can survive ?

I`ve a floppy drive in each of my computers,as too how long they`ll survive?...Well one is 6 years old and still going strong,I use it now and then for very small files,saves burning to a CDR or CD-RW.Yes they are old but very cheap to buy.Still got a few years or more before they are phased out IMHO.

 

[lordtyranus2]

I use a floppy for quick text file transferring of text documents. I could use a CD, but the floppy is quickest.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I haven't used floppies in years. For storing files, I use CDs, and for transferring files, I use networking.

 

[beatle]

I'll finally be able to boot mine when Windows allows you to insert a CD for scsi/raid drivers on startup.

Floppies mostly bother me in that they are unreliable as hell. If you're going to store something on a floppy, make sure you store a copy of it on something more reliable, like piece of paper inside a burning building.

 

[AMCRambler]

Floppies are still around because they are the only writeable device that works in dos. Until a new medium comes along with this capability and becomes widely accepted, or until dos is no longer needed floppies are still going to be around. I still use dos when windows gets screwed up, like when there's a virus or some piece of adware and it has right protected itself, I can still always boot into dos and delete the sucker. It's also easier to jump into fdisk to remove/create partitions and to format things from dos.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: Sunner
Haven't used one in years, couldn't be happier.
If I ever need to flash a BIOS from DOS, I'll do it with a boot CD.

What do you do when windows is fvcked and you don't have a boot cd already made? Can't burn one from dos. You'll have to make a boot disk.

 

[WebDude]

I think Iomega blew it big time a few years ago. With the right pricing strategy, they could have made the zip drive the replacement for the floppy. But the time for that has passed. As others have said, you still need a floppy if you have to install special drivers when you install Windows. There are some bios flashing programs that work within Windows if you want to upgrade your bios. I haven't tried them yet -- too chicken I guess. So the floppy is still good for that too. Other than those things the floppy's about as useful as an 8-track player.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler

Originally posted by: Sunner
Haven't used one in years, couldn't be happier.
If I ever need to flash a BIOS from DOS, I'll do it with a boot CD.

What do you do when windows is fvcked and you don't have a boot cd already made? Can't burn one from dos. You'll have to make a boot disk.

I'm guessing he doesn't worry much about windows being fvcked.

Personally I have at least two running machines at any given time so I could stick the burner in the other machine to burn a cd, or I could boot knoppix, etc. Debian doesn't get "fvcked" much though; if it's unbootable then it's easy to boot from an install disk or knoppix and reinstall lilo.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: DieHardware

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
I recently tried to setup a computer for a friend without a floppy drive. I actually ended up having to install a floppy drive to get the Windows 2000 install program to recognize the SATA controller.

I still use them for reasons like this.

That's exactly what I use my floppy for. That and BIOS flashes...just don't trust flashing from a USB memory stick.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: AMCRambler

Originally posted by: Sunner
Haven't used one in years, couldn't be happier.
If I ever need to flash a BIOS from DOS, I'll do it with a boot CD.

What do you do when windows is fvcked and you don't have a boot cd already made? Can't burn one from dos. You'll have to make a boot disk.

I'm guessing he doesn't worry much about windows being fvcked.

Personally I have at least two running machines at any given time so I could stick the burner in the other machine to burn a cd, or I could boot knoppix, etc. Debian doesn't get "fvcked" much though; if it's unbootable then it's easy to boot from an install disk or knoppix and reinstall lilo.

True true
I never do anything remotely important in Windows, so if I have to reinstall, it's no biggie, just a bunch of games to reinstall.

But in either case, I always have a bunch of different boot CD's available.