Replacing the 3.5" floppy drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vikas Agnihotri
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Vikas Agnihotri

I just read some online vendors advertise the 3.5" form factor USB
CF/memory stick, etc card readers as a "replacement" for the legacy 3.5"
floppy drive. Bigger capacity (CF cards hold 256MB vs. 1.4MB for a floppy!)
, many cards in one device, etc.

Is this really possible? Can I really have a modern-day system with no
floppy drive? Do systems boot from a CF card? Or is it too early yet to
proclaim the death of the floppy drive?

Thanks
 
I havent used a floppy drive for over a year now, and I have built 5
PCs in that time.

Is the 3.5 dead...well yes I think it is.

Windows installation CDs are bootable. And AFAIK you can create a
bootable USB drive.

Harry
 
Harry's right, and in many cases the system will be more compatible with
a usb drive instead of a floppy, as it can instantly go between current
Mac, Windows XP, and Linux OSes without the need for a specific driver
for each one, and the files can be used by each one. The CF 'thumb
drives' also come in sizes up to 1GB IIRC, but you pay a premium for
this. Regarding booting from these, I know of several attempts and
making linux distributions designed to operate without a hard drive
using these, but not all motherboards will permit boot from USB, so this
is something you'll have to check that's specific to each motherboard at
this point in time.

HTH,

Ari
I havent used a floppy drive for over a year now, and I have built 5
PCs in that time.

Is the 3.5 dead...well yes I think it is.

Windows installation CDs are bootable. And AFAIK you can create a
bootable USB drive.

Harry
Click to expand...


--

Are you registered as a bone marrow donor? You regenerate what you
donate. You are offered the chance to donate only if you match a person
on the recipient list. Call your local Red Cross and ask about
registering to be a bone marrow donor.

spam trap: replace shyah_right with hotmail when replying
 
Vikas said:
The discussion seems to have gone towards USB drives.

But my question was about the CF card reader devices.

Is there such a thing as a bootable CF card?
Click to expand...

Ahhh...well, this I don't know... :-(

--

Are you registered as a bone marrow donor? You regenerate what you
donate. You are offered the chance to donate only if you match a person
on the recipient list. Call your local Red Cross and ask about
registering to be a bone marrow donor.

spam trap: replace shyah_right with hotmail when replying
 
But my question was about the CF card reader devices.

Is there such a thing as a bootable CF card?
Click to expand...


This maybe machine-specific, but generally, anything that uses the
pcmcia/pccard slot is not bootable - yet.






-bobb
 
Vikas Agnihotri said:
I just read some online vendors advertise the 3.5" form factor USB
CF/memory stick, etc card readers as a "replacement" for the legacy 3.5"
floppy drive. Bigger capacity (CF cards hold 256MB vs. 1.4MB for a floppy!)
, many cards in one device, etc.

Is this really possible? Can I really have a modern-day system with no
floppy drive? Do systems boot from a CF card? Or is it too early yet to
proclaim the death of the floppy drive?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Check your system bios to see if you can boot from a USB device. Otherwise,
like paper the end of the floppy is greatly exaggerated.

I thought I could go without a floppy because I could buy USB memory or make
a bootable CD. BUT, after putting together a Cel-333 and a K6-II/500
systems I had to install a floppy on my system. I have lots of blank
floppies and the drive only cost 11usd vs. 20-80usd for a memory stick which
does not work with those motherboards.
 
Also, what about the ease of exporting favorites and address books to
floppies for fast and easy backup. I wouldn't want to lose my favorites,
because I was too lazy to transfer to a CDRW or CDR multisession. Plus
uncountable other things that will come up for the fast and easy use of a
floppy drive. I personally think they will be available for a long time,
maybe not from greedly mass producer manufactures who want to save
themselves $5 a machine. All good motherboards will have a floppy option to
the independent builder.

....Allen
 
Of course you could use a USB drive pen instead of a floppy.

Floppy disks
are prone to breakdown due to dust
only hold 1.4 Mb

USB drives
hold 64Mb or more
only breakdown if you jump on them
are faster at transferring data than floppies
are more compact
are cheap
last for ages

USB drives any-day over floppies.


(ahh that feels better)

Harry
 
Jim said:
I hear this death toll for the floppy over and over again, but it never
happens, invariably there's SOMETHING that needs it, and as Murphy would
have it, just when you think you DON'T need it. I can give plenty of
examples where use of a floppy is needed. Here's a classic (and isn't this
ironic), ever try to install mass storage devices on a Windows install
WITHOUT a floppy?! Can't be done (it will ONLY look at A:) not until AFTER
the OS installation anyway. And who wants to be swapping IDE cables for the
sake of $8. Worse, how 'bout SATA drivers?! You don't even HAVE the option
to use the standard IDE channels in that case, no floppy, no install. Yeah,
once SATA is well established like IDE, they'll be in the setup, but right
now you have a problem w/ no floppy.

I could give other examples, but when Microsoft's own stuff still relies on
the floppy, what more is there to say.

Jim
Click to expand...

Actually these days you can use a bootable CD to install an OS. BUT you'll
have a major problem trying to install a non-boot OS like W9x with a bios
that doesn't allow boot CDs.
 
Dang it, they're also easier to lose! But then, I've misplaced my TV
somewhere...my only problem with floppies is that I've got a couple
hundred of them, and the one I need is hiding in plain sight.

Of course you could use a USB drive pen instead of a floppy.

Floppy disks
are prone to breakdown due to dust
only hold 1.4 Mb

USB drives
hold 64Mb or more
only breakdown if you jump on them
are faster at transferring data than floppies
are more compact
are cheap
last for ages

USB drives any-day over floppies.


(ahh that feels better)

Harry
Click to expand...

e-mail modified, take the ** out to reply!

TW

kilocycles***@***yahoo.com
 
and if you ever need winXP HDD controllers (SCSI, RAID, SATA) then USB dont
work. i got a7n8x deluxe which can boot from a USB floppy/device, but when i
need to install SATA RAID drivers in winXP installation, then it will only
recognise a normal IDE floppy. bear that in mind.

tim
 
Whereas On Mon, 6 Oct 2003 18:56:04 +0000 (UTC), "\(\) |V| 3 G A"
and if you ever need winXP HDD controllers (SCSI, RAID, SATA) then USB dont
work. i got a7n8x deluxe which can boot from a USB floppy/device, but when i
need to install SATA RAID drivers in winXP installation, then it will only
recognise a normal IDE floppy. bear that in mind.
Click to expand...

A normal floppy is not IDE, it uses what is called the Shugart
interface.
 
A normal floppy is not IDE, it uses what is called the Shugart interface.

there ya go! you learn something new every day!


tim
 
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