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What would YOUR excuse be for putting a floppy drive in your machine at all?

SunnyD

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
I've been thinking about it lately, and after just putting together my second machine, I began to wonder why I spent $10 on a floppy drive for the setup.

Sure, it's kindof like a reflex I suppose. We've been using the damn things for eons. But after I really thought about it, I honestly haven't used a floppy in probably a year now. I think the last time I used it it was to flash a BIOS. Just a DOS boot disk. But then I realized, you can clean boot to DOS in Win9x/ME, so the boot disk is pointless. OS installs are all automated right off the CDs now. And honestly, if you really wanted to, you could make a DOS boot-CD.

What else is there for using a floppy? Transferring files? I'm all networked to death, so that's a moot point.

Drivers? I download them off the net (latest and greatest), and store them on the network if need be.

Floppies are slow. Unpleasing. So why did I put one in my new machine? Force of habit I think.

Why did YOU put a floppy in YOUR machine?

SunnyD

PS - I've got a nice idea for a floppy-replacement... Smart Media cards. Smaller, higher capacity (various sizes too), and much, MUCH faster. Why don't we use these? Cost isn't really prohibitive.
 
I have no bootable CDs thats why! I'm still installing win2k when I need on a burned version I made a couple years back with win98 on the same cd.
 
The new computer I'm going to be building in a few months won't even have a floppy drive on it...at least for a little while. That is, unless I need it for somthing. Then I'll stick the drive from my current desktop into it. The reason? Black case. Floppy drive is beige 🙂
 
Flashing BIOS; it's just quicker for me to stick a floppy in than to write a CD. Floppies don't need to have a table of contents written, then the data, then the write protect. That drag-n-drop is unpredictable too - 60% of the time, sticking one of those CD's in a computer (with the ability to read that file system) results in it seeing nothing in the drive at all, requiring the system to be rebooted with the CD in just to see it.
 
flashing bioses, using as boot disks, using for quick things like copying one file to another computer that doesnt have lan or net access (burning a cdrw would just take longer), fill a slot 🙂
 
I use my floppy drive to transfer Word and Excel files between my home computer and my work laptop. Yes, I could burn them on cd's and do the same thing, but the floppies are convenient for small file transfer, are cheap (bought by my employer), and are re-usable.

I could probably live without one if it was just for personal use.
 
I don't have one, so I didn't put one. They call it the "unsinkable 1.44MB floppy drive". I call it crap goes the weasel.
 
Because I would hate to change. If I do not put in a floppy the little slot it goes in will hvae ahole as most cases do not come with a cover for it.
 


<< I use my floppy drive to transfer Word and Excel files between my home computer and my work laptop. Yes, I could burn them on cd's and do the same thing, but the floppies are convenient for small file transfer, are cheap (bought by my employer), and are re-usable.

I could probably live without one if it was just for personal use. >>



Thats what a network is for 🙂

Of course that might not be an option for you, considering its a work laptop.
 
Mainly, one word: KLinux. 😎 You need one to make the disks, one to boot with on other machines, and they help when exchanging data.

Although I wouldn't mind using a bootable KLinux CD if I knew how to make one. Those floppies fail too easily.
 
cause they are cheap. And the first time you really need one you will kick your self in the butt for not putting one in your pc. Of course multiple things would have to blow up for me to have to resort to a floppy, but I am all for backups.
 
I haven't used a floppy in YEARS. but then again I use a Mac and Macs are ahead of their time. Trust me, you don't need a floppy.
 
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