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08-13-2005, 01:01 PM
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#1 of 21 
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Join Date: Jul 1999
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Local Date: 10-16-2008
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When and How Did the 3.5 Floppy Drive Become Dispensable?
Low price desktops don't come with floppy drives anymore. Admittedly, I don't use mine often, but are they obsolete or is this just a way to make the cheapest possible computers?
Thanks
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08-13-2005, 01:40 PM
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#2 of 21
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It's not an either/or; they are pretty much obsolete, and it does make the computers cheaper. Apple stopped including them a long time ago. I built a Windows box without one a few years back, and missed having the floppy only once or twice.
People use networking and email to send files to others. To carry files yourself, USB thumb drives have much more capacity, don't go bad like floppies do, and are very cheap. About the only thing floppies are good for now is creating boot diskettes to flash the BIOS. Once booting from USB thumb drives is commonplace, floppies will be dead (for new computers).
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08-13-2005, 01:47 PM
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#3 of 21
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Not even that! I have flashed my bios from my hard drive.
Glenn
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08-13-2005, 03:59 PM
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#4 of 21
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CJ
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some motherboard manufacturers still require a floppy drive to flash your bios. it's the only reason i have one.
CJ
And then when I feel so stuffed I can't eat anymore, I just use the restroom! And then I CAN eat more!
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08-13-2005, 05:01 PM
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#5 of 21
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Robert
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you can flash your bios from a bootable cdrom, just copy the "floppy's" contents to a bootable cd and your good. It's how I handle all my flashing nowadays.
"Computers are a lot like air conditioners - they both work great until you open windows." -Anonymous
"The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but that we will agree to meet them halfway." -Bernard Avishai
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08-13-2005, 09:42 PM
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#6 of 21
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The basic problem with floppies is that their capacity became a gating issue given the large size of files today. 1.44 meg isn't enough to do much with. So why should manufacturers invest dollars in a PC with a legacy device that has very little value now. There's very little margin in desktops or laptops these days. Better to let customers use their USB port to plug their own devices in, such as a USB drive.
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08-13-2005, 11:37 PM
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#7 of 21
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If you really need access to a 3.5" floppy you can purchase an outboard drive that plugs into your USB 2.0 port for around $35.00 at CompUSA :
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...95056&pfp=cat3
The nice thing about this drive is that it can be carried from computer to computer and doesn't even require an AC source (it derives all the power that it needs from the USB port). |
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08-14-2005, 12:36 AM
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#8 of 21
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Though I rarely use mine, I like to have it in case someone gives me a file on a floppy. Plus I never know when I might need one to work on an older PC. But they won't be around for much longer, I think.
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08-14-2005, 02:14 AM
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#9 of 21
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David Williams
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Quote:
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I like to have it in case someone gives me a file on a floppy.
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Does this happen often?!? I can't remember the last time this happened to me.
The truth is that the Zip et al drive long ago eclipsed the meager floppy in the era of the multi-megabyte file and even the Zip/Jaz is outré.
Welcome to the Age of USB drive. No moving parts, reliable and easily portable.
"Only two things are infinite––the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." ––Albert Einstein
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08-14-2005, 10:03 AM
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#11 of 21
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I build a computer for my parents which only had a single SATA hard drive. I had to copy some drivers onto a floppy in order for Windows XP to recognize the SATA drive.
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08-15-2005, 09:12 AM
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#12 of 21
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floppies are obsolete and i hate them. that 1.44 mb of space is insulting. i try to avoid including them with my builds at all costs but some people are stuck on this old technology.
i have collected a million of them over the years and they are very unreliable. one will work in one system and not the other one. | |
