Do you still have a floppy drive?

[888888]

When I recently built myself a new computer, I did not put in a floppy drive. Even though I had an extra one lying around, I decided that it was too useless and not worth the clutter in the case from the cable or the ugliness in front. I haven't used a floppy disk in years.

How many of you are in the same boat and have said goodbye to floppies like iMac users did in the late 90s? How many can't or won't let go?

Hopefully, such a poll wasn't already done. I searched and could not find anything similar, which is surprising since this seems like a much thought about issue.

[stiltman]

I still do. I use it for creating bootdisks that I can image to CD or DVD. Comes in real handy for me and my projects

[Capmaster]

Yep. I bought a top of the line Sony Vaio Media Center PC with all the trimmings. It came with 2.8 P4-HT (1MB L2), FW/USB2, 512MB DDR RAM, 160GB HD, Pioneer 107, separate CD-ROM, 17" LCD and .......you guessed it - a 3-1/2" floppy drive

I've had the PC since early July and have yet to insert a floppy into the drive. It acts as an air inlet for the fan and dust is accumulating on the little door on the floppy drive. It'll probably never get used.

The PC vendors did away with MFM HD, ISA, EISA, serial and parallel ports (almost), the 5-1/4" floppy, VESA local bus. Time to retire the floppy, I say

[808smokey]

you'll need it when your HD dies or you get a nasty virus

[bazooka]

Yes

[glockjs]

yeah!

had a prob with my hdd not too long ago, and yup needed a floppy. had to go out and buy one. my thinking was just like yours that they are useless. but i got proved wrong.

[Capmaster]

yeah!

had a prob with my hdd not too long ago, and yup needed a floppy. had to go out and buy one. my thinking was just like yours that they are useless. but i got proved wrong.

Good to know it might save my ass some day

[stiltman]

na, just use Hiren's BootCD or BartPE

[IAIHMB]

I do, but it don't work. :P I'm going to replace it though, it's needed to flash my BIOS.

[redwudz]

I have all three options, depending on the machine. The last PC I put together, I omitted the floppy. But I do have an add on floppy that works off USB. I use this mostly with my laptop, but it has saved my ass on my PC without the floppy. I will probably not install floppy drives on any computer I build from now on.

My real replacement for floppys are USB flash drives. I have a handful of them, from 16MB to 512MB USB 2.0. If your PC has a front USB port, these are great. Fast, portable and virtually unbreakable. The best floppy replacement, IMHO.

[stiltman]

My real replacement for floppys are USB flash drives. I have a handful of them, from 16MB to 512MB USB 2.0. If your PC has a front USB port, these are great. Fast, portable and virtually unbreakable. The best floppy replacement, IMHO.

Can you boot from them?

[ViRaL1]

All my systems have floppy drives at present, even the laptop (USB). I could use the USB floppy with all my other systems if I really felt like crawling around behind it every time I needed to move it from one PC to another. I make use of the floppy all the time, especially when I need to Ghost over the net. If I really wanted to go through the trouble I could make one boot CD with all my NIC drivers and leave it at that, but I don't make use of them on an every day basis. From a technician's standpoint. I'd hate to see people stop using floppy drives altogether, as they come in quite handy for loading drivers (especially before the NIC is recognized). Floppies are RW and there's not much in the way of compatibility. Some older CD drives won't read CD-RW.

[redwudz]

stiltman asked : "Can you boot from them?", referring to USB flash drives. To tell the truth, I don't know.

I see one of my machines for boot devices lists, USB CDROM, USB ZIP, USB FLOPPY. I will have to give it a try.

Anyone boot from a flash drive out there? If so, seems the perfect replacement for the floppy.

[ViRaL1]

Some machines will if you have the necessary files loaded on them. Depends on your PC. As always YMMV.

[glockjs]

na, just use Hiren's BootCD or BartPE

i really couldnt because the proggy that samsung was designed to make a bootable floppy there was no way around that one.

plus alot of drivers come in the format of a floppy still, what if your i net connection is down for the night?

plus its as simple as a check mark to make a bootable floppy 8)

[thecoalman]

Yep and used it a total of one time to install the drivers for my SATA controller when I reformatted/reinstalled when I first purchased computer.

[Cobra]

I never use it for anything more than utilities such as MemTest (requires a floppy to boot off) or holding SATA drivers for Windows XP installation.

[bugster]

Yes, all the PC's in my house (seven) still have floppy drives. My kids use floppy disks for taking homework between school and home, but I can't remember the last time the others were used!

[Scottie]

I don't have one in both my computers, if I need to I boot up with my Windows 98 CD but I never need to haven't used a floopy drive n a year or so.

[Greg12]

yes but I wish they'd die I see sooo many people at the university help desk with dead floppys.

However, I had a USB drive and it worked for a month before Windows stopped recondizing it.

More more lexar secure

[iooi]

Nope 3 Pc's and not a floppy in sight. Thankfully Xp runs from cd so no need there for a floppy.
Floppy hole makes a nice vent on front of case to help air flow... And keep all the hard drives a bit cooler