floppy drives

[viramor]

I'm curious if I need to even include a floppy drive in my next build.

 

[TC10284]

I still find that I use floppies on occasion. Mostly for BIOS updates (which, yes, a lot of new boards allow you to flash with a USB drive or in Windows), and creating Ghost boot floppies. Otherwise, that's about all I use them for.
I can say that I try to put a floppy drive in each system I own. Just because I'm used to them I suppose.

 

[Iron Clad Burrito]

3+ years without one. I've only really missed it on one occasion, and I found a workaround.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: TC10284
I still find that I use floppies on occasion.

Me too. :laugh:

 

[TC10284]

Originally posted by: Blain

Me too. :laugh:

 

[Lord Evermore]

Required, not often. Handy to have if you've got the space? Certainly. At the very least, have a drive and cable in your spare parts box even if you don't want it in your system. If you've got an empty bay, you may as well put the drive in it, and bundle the cable up out of the way and unplugged or just leave it out if you're worried about airflow or prettiness. If you end up running into a need for one, isn't it easier to just have it ready to work than spend time searching for workarounds?

Maybe one day there'll be another universally bootable, portable, universally compatible device/function, but the floppy may still be around for a long time. Floppies are the only thing that you can pretty much use as long as you minimally have power. You can flash a BIOS in most cases without even being able to get video output, let alone POST and initialize USB or a hard drive or optical drive, as long as you've got a floppy drive. Perhaps if we move along to EFI or something, they'll manage to add in code that allows you to run some other bootable device in the same way.

 

[lenjack]

Not needed, but I think good to have. I use mine maybe once a month.

 

[w00t]

Not Needed, but it's still very good for school and such I prefer the thumb drives.

 

[lamere]

I still use them on occasion.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't used one in over 4 years. I hate the damned things. Just hearing the obnoxious sound they make raises my blood pressure I feel the same way about floppies that link19 feels about Win98, I'm just not quite as vociferous :laugh:

 

[corkyg]

Without launching into a pedantic discourse, no. I haven't had to use one in nearly 3 years.

I do use them now and then for accessing old floppy data disks. I then consolidate them onto CDRs. Eventually, they will all be gone.

 

[tallman45]

How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I still use them. Good for small files on sneakernet. I use a thumbdrive for a lot of temp files, but if I want to keep them (list of logins and passwords for sites for example), I use a floppy. I use them for things like Ghost, utilities for zapping the MBR, booting into a DOS enviornment to get rid of stubborn files, etc..

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I have a bunch of drives and disks in a box so if I ever need them I have them. I didn't spend the $10 on a black floppy drive to match my case because it wasn't worth it to me - I've only used a floppy in my computer once since I built it. I used that $10 towards a card reader instead which I use a LOT.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.

my high school has no floppy drives in the media center. In additon, every computer has a dvd+/- rw drive.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
You can get a brand new internal floppy drive from newegg for $10 shipped, and most motherboards come with a cable. While most people rarely use them, it seems like good insurance for such a low price. If nothing else, you can use it for motherboard BIOS updates. And a lot of people still pass around data on floppies. If you're in school, a floppy drive can be a must. I would highly recommend floppy drives for even the tightest budgets.

my high school has no floppy drives in the media center. In additon, every computer has a dvd+/- rw drive.

That's fine, but not all schools are like that. The college I attend uses floppy drives.

 

[travis712]

I never used mine, so I took mine out w/ the cable attached. If I ever need it I will just grab it out've my parts box and hook it up. I doubt I will need it though.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.

You still need a floppy drive to actually use the drivers during install. That can be avoided by slipstreaming the drivers into the install CD.

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: tallman45
How do you load the SATA drivers during Windows install without a floppy ?

Are you serious? Mine are on my mobo's CD or on the CD that comes with the PCI card. You can also download them.

So you take out the windows install CD during install (at the F6 prompt) and put in the SATA driver CD, that never worked in the past.

Is that how you do it ?

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
I have a bunch of drives and disks in a box so if I ever need them I have them. I didn't spend the $10 on a black floppy drive to match my case because it wasn't worth it to me - I've only used a floppy in my computer once since I built it. I used that $10 towards a card reader instead which I use a LOT.

Two birds with one stone here

 

[savvy]

Sometimes I need them for school, amazingly.

 

[Ausm]

i STILL NEED THEM ESPECIALLY WHEN WORKING ON A OLDER SYSTEM.

oops sorry about the caps

Ausm

 

[HannibalX]

They cost 5 bucks, or the USB card reader/floppy combos are $20.00

Why not? Know what I mean.