Floppy drive question

[stringer98]

I'm looking to order parts for a build and had a question. Is there any use for a floppy drive? Or can I get by without one?

Heres the thing ...

I want to get an Antec P180b case and theres only 1 3.5 bay. I already know a card reader would be super useful for me. And i figure a floppy would be great to have just in case.

Now theres extremely little that I can find on an internal, black card reader + floppy (mitsumi and kouteck sp?) I wanted a card reader that supports more media types than these offer.

Should i just go with a better card reader and no floppy? Or get the mitsumi? (out of newegg stock for quite some time now). Im confused. Thanks for any help.

 

[ch33zw1z]

IF you don't have a floppy, pick one up. no need to install, but you may need to boot to it every so often for BIOS updates or w/e. That's how I do it at least, pop the side off and plug it in.

 

[stringer98]

ok so i may need a floppy for bios updates? this cant be done with an optical drive? i may just have to get the mitsumi i suppose... idk

 

[RebateMonger]

I'm hesitant to build any PC without a floppy drive. They come in handy sometimes and are absolutely necessary if you are involved with RAID arrays.

Why not use a 3.5"/5.25" adapter and put either the floppy or the card reader in a 5.25" bay? Alternatively, a USB floppy drive MAY work for most functions that require a floppy drive.

 

[Baked]

I don't trust windows based BIOS flash programs, especially one as important as motherboard. Some mobo companies, like Gigabyte, offer BIOS flashing tool built into the BIOS menu. But this tool only supports flashing BIOS from floppy drive.

Every system I've ever built has a floppy drive installed.

 

[John]

Why not pick up an internal 1.44 floppy drive and a USB 24-in-1 card reader?

 

[stringer98]

thanx every1. it looks like a floppy is important after all.

i guess ill just get one of THESE things. unless theres a reson i shouldnt? looks good to me as far as i can tell

 

[stringer98]

Originally posted by: John
Why not pick up an internal 1.44 floppy drive and a USB 24-in-1 card reader?

i didnt think of that lol thanks. im such a newb. i do prefer the clean look of that mitsumi tho. either one will work i suppose

 

[igowerf]

I just got a USB floppy drive which I use in the rare cases where I actually need a floppy drive.

 

[Navid]

I have been running my system without a floppy drive for about 2 years now. I use Nero to create a bootable CD to use instead of a floppy for flashing the BIOS or anything else that needs a floppy.

In that period, I have experienced two instances when I could not use a CD. Once I was using an old program (2002) called Drive Image by PowerQuest (taken over by Symantec) that created rescue disks and it could only write them to floppy. So, I needed a floppy for that. Another time, I was flashing the BIOS for A8N-SLI Deluxe (ASUS) and the flash program attempted to store the current flash on the floppy and since the floppy was really a CD (not writable), it failed.

So, I agree that there are times you can use a floppy. But, those times are very rare.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I used a Zalman hd cooler, and installed the floppy backwards. It isn't visible to the outside, but it's there and installed if I need it. Even though I had to take the side panel off to get to it, I didn't need it that often. Worked out rather well.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I used a Zalman hd cooler, and installed the floppy backwards. It isn't visible to the outside, but it's there and installed if I need it. Even though I had to take the side panel off to get to it, I didn't need it that often. Worked out rather well.

That seems like a good idea. Thanks.

I'm praying that Vista will make floppy drives disappear for good.

 

[stevem326]

Originally posted by: stringer98
thanx every1. it looks like a floppy is important after all.

i guess ill just get one of THESE things. unless theres a reson i shouldnt? looks good to me as far as i can tell

Yeh I would definitely include a floppy drive in your build. They're great for running all sorts of utility programs.

 

[Slammy1]

Some of it is simply bad programming, you can slipstream RAID drivers, but there are times when you do need a floppy but mainly advanced functions where you need to run a minimal boot w/o CD drivers. I haven't had any problems running a USB floppy to do that (yet). I also have it in case friends need it, which is far less than I do.

I guess the main use for floppies in my case is protection of data I'm transferring from the office. Those things you don't want to e-mail yourself, nothing villainous just proprietary.

 

[Saku]

So far on my new build I needed a floppy for:
new bios
memtest86
HD diagnostic tools
HD low level formatting

So yes I would def. recommend installing a floppy drive.