Do you still have a floppy drive?

[Rob Williams]

I've pondered this from time to time.. who here all still has a floppy drive? I haven't had one installed in my computer for years. The last one I used was an external floppy drive, which I used because I ended up finding some super old discs lying around.

 

[madmat]

Yep, doing raid arrays nearly mandates having a floppy so rather than have a USB version to fight with I just go with one in the case and say screw it. Besides, all my USB ports are full

 

[werty316]

I use a floppy drive when I need to update and firmwares.

 

[madstork91]

I cannot vote on this issue...

I have a floppy drive on my old rig that I could rip out if I ever needed it, but the last time i needed it was about a year ago.

 

[leecho7]

I have a floppy drive, but last time I actually used it was... can't remember.
I pretty much have it for aesthetic value.

 

[Lothar]

I find it comes in useful for dealing with viruses. When you know you picked up something, but the virus scanner can't take care of it, I use a bootdisk I made in college so that I can get to the files and remove the suspects (can't delete them if windows is using them after all...) Haven't had to do that recently, but I've done it atleast 4 times now. It's just a handy tool for troubleshooting sometimes too, although less so with newer technology. Used it much more when I was still running win98.

 

[T-Shirt]

yup, I've got floppy drives on each machine "just in case" Not that I ever use them, but occasionally I get a project which requires recovering data/programs archived from old school machines.
The drives will be around until they fail (not buying any new ones )

 

[maddmaxx]

I have an external USB floppy which comes in handy for flashing the BIOs of older machines. Other than that I don't have one in the Rat.

 

[SillySider03]

Edited.

 

[fussnfeathers]

I don't actually have one installed in my case, but I do have a couple in my toolbox. If/when I need to use it for a BIOS flash, I just pop the case open and plug the floppy drive in, and leave it hanging outside the case until I'm done.

You really don't need one for RAID drivers anymore, either. I have mine slipstreamed into my XP CD, so they install natively instead of requiring a floppy drive.

 

[Jakal]

I'm with Fuss. I've got one for installing the sata and raid drivers if or when I need them. It's not plugged in or anything unless in use. I agree that they're handy, but I don't use them on a regular basis. I wish flash drives would become the new floppy. You could fit almost any program on one, or a copy of windows. I hope manufacturers are working on that now.

 

[madstork91]

unfortunatly i think the zip has been overshadowed by the usb storage devices. The money to be made is significanly better there, so zip could fade out faster than Pogs.

 

[T-Shirt]

..... I wish zip drives would become the new floppy..

I think the time for zip drives is past, other more reliable, more standard/widely useable, higher capacity/ with faster writes and cheaper forms of media like CD/DVD R_W flash and even mini HD have taken over.
I'm sure Iomega will keep trying to rediscover their niche, but expensive, proprietary drives and media would have to have some AMAZING new features to have the kind of run that Zip drives did early on.

 

[sbrehm72255]

I've got a floppy drive stuck in a desk somewhere just in case, if I need it I connect it externaly...... My UFO case doesn't even have a 3.5 external bay..................

 

[Jakal]

I did mean flash drives at the time. Sorry about that. I was thinking about my father's computer and how he still used a zip drive, at the time. lol