To floppy or not to floppy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff

....almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
 
Jeff said:
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide
on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead
(removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing
that I would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install
a raid driver.
Click to expand...

I haven't needed one in years. You could always add one later.

Have fun.





By the way. You might want to wrap your lines at 76 characters or
so.
 
Jeff said:
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?
Click to expand...

It's a dif'rent strokes thing.. Myself, I use a DOS6.22 bootable
floppy every week to run Ghost image backups, also to directly
access my system files when e.g. a Windows update screws them
up, or I need to forcably delete viruses, malware, rootkits etc etc.

I can't imagine building a new system without a floppy drive, or
imagine using NTFS for my system or boot volume. Those are
the two main reasons I've been able to run the same Win2K OS
install since December '99.
 
Jeff said:
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
Click to expand...

Solution is simple. Buy a conventional floppy.
When you need it, open the side of the computer, and
temporarily connect the floppy. Do what needs to be
done. Shut down, and disconnect the floppy from the
computer. Then, when friends come to visit, they
won't think you are a Neanderthal 'cause you've still
got a floppy in the computer :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/neanderthal_prog_summary.shtml

All my computers have a floppy. And I'm proud of that
fact. I don't know how many times, when everything else
seems to be busted, I can always rely on the lowly
floppy to move data from one computer to another.

And you'll always have a friend, who brings stuff
over to you on a floppy :-) As soon as you remove
the floppy drive from your computer, that is when
that friend knocks on your door.

Paul
 
EDM said:
"Jeff" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Click to expand...
It's a dif'rent strokes thing.. Myself, I use a DOS6.22 bootable
floppy every week to run Ghost image backups, also to directly
access my system files when e.g. a Windows update screws them
up, or I need to forcably delete viruses, malware, rootkits etc etc.
Click to expand...

I can still run Dos 6.2 and ghost from a bootable CD I created with the drivers necessary for the scsi card in my machine. ...took a
short while to get that right, but it works great, and is much less likely damaged than a floppy. ...can't access NTSF drives with
dos, of course, but works well to clone the entire drive with ghost.

I'm pretty much inclined to do what Paul mentions - especially since I just sprang for a Lian Li case where the side cover comes off
by loosening a single thumbscrew and it is on rollers to make it easy to wheel out from under the desk. ...but many more friends are
still using zip drives, so if I wanted to please them, I guess I would have to transfer over my zip from the old machine - and I'm
definitely not going to do that - haven't used one of those zips in about 2 years.

Jeff
 
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
Click to expand...
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain
purposes. If you need to move a file from one machine to another, why
use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy? Makes no sense to
me. Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs and for small
files faster to both read and write than CDs.

Floppy disk drives are still cost effective, you only need to use it
once for it to pay for itself.
 
you need a floppy to install raid drivers

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
Friends don't turn friends on to drugs.
The path often thought about and sometimes chosen by abused children as
adults is Suicide. Be a real friend.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb Dual Channel OCZ
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT
 
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain purposes.
Click to expand...

Buggeer all now.
If you need to move a file from one machine to another,
why use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy?
Click to expand...

Why bother with a floppy when plugging it into the lan is
much simpler and using a USB drive if thats not feasible ?
Makes no sense to me.
Click to expand...

Using floppys makes no sense to me.
Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs
Click to expand...

CDs are robust enough and much more reliable than floppys.

USB drives in spades.
and for small files faster to both read and write than CDs.
Click to expand...

USB drives are much faster again, the lan in spades.
Floppy disk drives are still cost effective,
Click to expand...

Nope, not compared with a USB drive or lan.
you only need to use it once for it to pay for itself.
Click to expand...

Wrong again.
 
Edward said:
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain
purposes. If you need to move a file from one machine to another, why
use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy? Makes no sense to
me. Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs and for small
files faster to both read and write than CDs.
Click to expand...

And thumb drives are smaller and faster than floppies.
Floppy disk drives are still cost effective, you only need to use it
once for it to pay for itself.
Click to expand...

Thumbs are down to ten bucks or less (US) for small-capacity units that
are still huge compared to floppies.

And floppies on your keyring don't fit well in your pants pocket.

And we are probably at the point, now, that when you want to take
something with you to a friend's place, there's a better chance of him
having a USP port than a floppy drive.
 
Ah as usual rod, your a wealth of info. Try explaining with the info you
don't know instead of simply disagreeing.

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
Friends don't turn friends on to drugs.
The path often thought about and sometimes chosen by abused children as
adults is Suicide. Be a real friend.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb Dual Channel OCZ
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT
 
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver.. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
Click to expand...
It depends entirely on the BIOs of your motherboard whether it supports
booting from a USB floppy drive or not.

FWIW, I've not had a floppy drive for 4 years and haven't missed it. If
I need to flash the BIOS, I create a bootable CDROM.


--
Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

Earn commission on online purchases, £2.50 just for signing up:
http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/Conor/ref/index.htm
 
Edward W. said:
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain
purposes. If you need to move a file from one machine to another, why
use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy? Makes no sense to
me.
Click to expand...

If it's small enough to fit on a floppy, you can email it faster.
Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs and for small
files faster to both read and write than CDs.
Click to expand...
WRONG.

FLoppies are nowhere near as robust as CDs. Damp, cold, heat, any
magnetic source, the soft material inside them bobbling or the head
alignment between one drive and another can cause them to fail.
They're nowhere near as fast for reading either.


--
Conor

I'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, they would tell you.

Earn commission on online purchases, £2.50 just for signing up:
http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/Conor/ref/index.htm
 
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver. I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
Click to expand...


I still use my floppy drive. The BIOS flash procedure advises using a
boot floppy in case of a power outage. USB Flash drives have replaced
the floppy for most uses, but I'm not sure if the CMOS allows to boot
from one.
 
Jeff said:
...almost have my 1st full machine finished. ...trying to decide on
whether to put in a floppy drive. I can easily foresee needing
the bay that a floppy would occupy for a harddrive instead (removable
tray, etc.). From what I gather, the only likely thing that I
would need a floppy for would be to flash a bios or install a raid driver.
I've seen some external USB floppy drives that aren't
that much more than the internals (which are also cheap). ...don't know if
they will work without the OS loaded, however. If not,
they wouldn't be any good for the above tasks. Could someone let me know
if an external USB will work to boot dos from or otherwise
use with the operating system? ...or if there is some other use for a
floppy that I'm overlooking?

Jeff
Click to expand...
When you install XP and need to install your raid/hd controller with the F6
option XP will not accept anything except a floppy (a:drive). There are a
lot of other cases where a floppy can come in very handy. Many things can be
handled by CDs or thumb drives on today's MBs, but I always install a floppy
drive for those "other" things. When Vista comes out you will notice that it
will accept drivers from almost any media..........but it ain't here for the
consumer yet.

Ed
 
lol

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
Friends don't turn friends on to drugs.
The path often thought about and sometimes chosen by abused children as
adults is Suicide. Be a real friend.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb Dual Channel OCZ
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT
 
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain
purposes. If you need to move a file from one machine to another, why
use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy? Makes no sense to
me. Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs and for small
files faster to both read and write than CDs.
Click to expand...

They came up with this neat gizmo called a thumb drive so you don't need a
floppy to do that. I always put a floppy drive in my computers but not to
transfer files. They are just there in case I ever do need them.
 
Floppy drives are inexpensive and still very useful for certain
purposes. If you need to move a file from one machine to another, why
use a CD to write a file that will fit on a floppy? Makes no sense to
me. Floppy disks are smaller, more robust than CDs and for small
files faster to both read and write than CDs.

Floppy disk drives are still cost effective, you only need to use it
once for it to pay for itself.
Click to expand...


I find them to be still very useful. I build no machine
without a floppy. Now days, you can use pen drives for file swaping
between machines, but I like the fact you can boot from floppies no
matter how old a machine, and use them to swap files to those old
machines where a pen drive won't.
 
There are ways to install raid drivers without a floppy, but they are
complicated and not much fun. It is much easier just to use a floppy.

Overall, I think floppy drives are still worthwhile.
 
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