Why don't they replace...

dave127

Senior member
Nov 26, 2000
912
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0
floppy drives with slot load minidisc drives...minidiscs are much faster, smaller, and smaller than floppy discs and they dont cost alot like zip discs do
 

TunaBoo

Diamond Member
May 6, 2001
3,280
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Floppy standard needs to change. I dropped my floppy, others are too. But for right now the general pop isn't planning on it.
 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
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76
i know,

one thing that is cool is that, Floppies are soooo old and so outdated... yet so needed, and very very popular!

I dunno :confused:

Bryan!
 

COWWATCHER

Banned
May 31, 2001
129
0
0
only time i use my floppy is when i format meh HD...eventually they will get rid of them...hardly anyone uses them and there like only what 15$ for the best one?
 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
hardly anyone uses them..??/

i would bet they are used more often then you think!
 

bjc112

Lifer
Dec 23, 2000
11,460
0
76
how do you make them bootable?

tweaks? cracks?

i heard of a few, never took enough interest!

Bryan
 

dave127

Senior member
Nov 26, 2000
912
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0
the minidiscs would be cheap if they produced them int hte numbers that they make floppies
 

MichaelD

Lifer
Jan 16, 2001
31,528
3
76
To my knowledge, the only way to make a CDR 100% bootable is to have the CD drivers loaded already...not a possibility with a totally blank HD.

A bootable floppy runs in DOS (no duh) and loads the CD driver so that you can load your OS. This (admittedly very old) standard is supported by 100% of all mobo manufacturers. It's there for a reason. I don't like it either...one more darn IDE cable to mess with! It won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Even very advanced proggys like Norton system works still make reacue disks out of FLOPPIES!! No one EVER needs a floppy...until something goes wrong.
 

Soccerman

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,378
0
0
CD's could easily replace floppy disks, if everyone had a CD Burner.

All you need is to be able to burn a booteable CD (nero, and EZ CD too I think can both create booteable CDs), and then tell your BIOS to use the CDROM as a boot device.
 

Doctorweir

Golden Member
Sep 20, 2000
1,689
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0
MD Data is just too small...just 120MB...you can use some of these LS Drives for this...
Anyway, MD technology in a disc drive may be too expensive...
For Audio stuff it's perfect...I wouldn't want to miss my MD recorder... :)
 

pulpp

Platinum Member
May 14, 2001
2,137
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0
floppies are still the most commonly used way to transfer data between computers, they wont go any where any time soon.
 

Jiggz

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2001
4,329
0
76
Maybe the question should be "Why don't they innovate the floppy drive so it'll be 10X faster and at least twice its density using the same media?". This will be great since everyone has them and uses them. And they are available everywhere!
 

Modus

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,235
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Floppies remain popular in nearly every modern PC, for a few strong reasons:

1) The drives are dirt cheap. It costs me about $8 US to equip a client's new PC with a floppy. For eight bloody dollars, can you tell me why I shouldn't?

2) The drives are ubiquitous. The 1.44M floppy has been standard for over a decade. Anywhere you take it, to the four corners of the earth, Asia, Europe, Africa, whatever -- there be floppies. The same just can't be said about CD or DVD.

3) Most personal data files still aren't that big. Word processing, accounting, web graphics, business data files -- people forget how small they really are. You can fit three full length Stephen King novels on one 1.44M floppy.

4) CDRW is still not supported seamlessly in current operating systems. Only with the addition of Adaptec's clunky DirectCD can people hope to use their CDRW drives as easily as "Right Click > Send to A:". And then there's the hassle of mounting, unmounting, etc. Why bother for a 30k resume?

Of all these points, 1) is the strongest and the main reason why floppy drives are still found in almost every new PC. If the floppy drive cost even half as much as a cheap 8x CDRW, it would be pointless, but at its current cost -- seemingly less than the cost of the raw materials needed to manufactur it -- the economics make perfect sense.

Modus
 

Soccerman

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,378
0
0
yeah Modus has it. people who have enough money can discard their floppies if they want to..

but to have the ability to write to a CD(R or RW) like a floppy or hard drive is still not conveniant enough (you need Direct CD or something similar running at all times) to have it replace the floppy drive..

the only drive IMHO with potential to 'replace' the floppy drive is the LS120 drives, which can read/write 1.44 meg floppies, as well as their 120 meg disks (which cost too much still). There's also a drive (made by the same company as the ones who made the LS120) that can re-format a 1.44 meg floppy to 32 megs size, but it needs to have that drive to read it, not a normal floppy drive.

the downside to the enhanced floppy drives, is that they're too expensive, compared to the 1.44 meg floppy drives.
 

DaejangNim

Senior member
May 24, 2001
710
1
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all u really ever use floppies for is transferring documents and boot-disks, why does it need to be faster just for that?