Do you include a floppy drive in your builds?

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CrombieKid

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2 part question, if you were building a computer today would you include a floppy drive and when do you think they will become obsolete?
 
CrombieKid said:
2 part question, if you were building a computer today would you include a floppy drive and when do you think they will become obsolete?
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Yes, and i have no clue...
 
Yep.

It's a cheap media.

Handy for bios updates , still.

Obsolete? don't know.
 
yes i include a floppy drive and they'll become obsolete once school papers start taking up more space then a floppy; i.e., once school assignments beome more graphics/interactive/STUFF intensive.
 
yes for any SATA boxes I build (for the drivers). Don't have one in my PC (below).
 
I agree with including one. They're so cheap there's no reason not to. They are handy for fairly small files you might need to transport between home/work/school.

Having to burn a 10K text file to CD would be more trouble than it's worth.
 
thats why god invented usb thumbdrives and flash media

No I dont include them anymore
They may be cheap but Id rather nudge them towards death where they belong.
 
No, I use my USB flash drive for everything that the floppy did do. And USB is much quicker and almost as easy to use as even old Packard Bells had USB drives.

As for going obsolete, its happening but all of the major pc manufacturers will have to adopt like a "Dell" policy, but it will be a long time because its heavily used in the business environment, where pcs and software aren't upgraded so rapidly
 
Bill Gates once said 640kb is enough for anyone.


Anyway, I think they're ugly. Maybe if they made them like cassette tape decks or VCRs, with the flap of plastic blocking the opening. They'd be cool like that.

I always relate 3.5" floppy drives to VCRs. We only use 'em 'cause we have so much media for 'em. Once we no longer need all the disks, they'll be obsolete.

I'm not including one in my next build. I have a Dell 128MB USB key and a SanDisk 256MB Mini Cruzer. As long as the computers I encounter have USB ports, I'm fine.
 
I always include floppies in builds. Just how many average users do you know carries around a flash drive or zip disk?
 
saturnine2 said:
I always include floppies in builds. Just how many average users do you know carries around a flash drive or zip disk?
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Zip disks no, but you would be surprised on how widely used USB drives are used now
 
i do... not all bioses have support for booting to usb *cough*nf7s*cough*

and when installing windows, i need tthe sata drivers...
 
jamezzz122 said:
No...I buy them a 128mb USB drive...
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Last I knew, USB didn't work in DOS and there are times you just have to.

Most schools and libraries don't have comps that will allow you to plug-in your own USB drives. Shit, my local library has right-click totally disabled.

Many employers frown on employees using anything which isn't "officially sanctioned" in company comps.

It's a lot easier to give someone a file on a dirt-cheap floppy you don't expect to be returned than to "lend" them a USB drive and have to worry about getting it back.

:)
 
Always.

A FDD is one of those technologies which will never really become obsolete, just like COM ports (the RS-232 standard was developed in the sixties), simply because they work well for what they were designed for. They'll only become less and less used as technology progresses.

I fully expect to see FDDs in use in 5 years time and long after that.
 
Yes, I put them in new systems, but usually a Floppy/MediaReader combo.

Obsolete?.... When all computers have easily accessable USB/FlashMedia ports.
USB/vanilla flash media is the next floppy, imo.
 
Yes I do. They will become obsolete when all computers support booting from USB devices and when MS supports installing drivers for 3rd party mass storage devices through USB.
 
I did install one when I build my XP2500+ rig (I kept the drive I had on my previous Duron), and made this stealth floppy drive mod ;) . But when I upgraded my Duron, I needed it, and didn't want to buy another drive, so I removed the one from my Athlon. Later, I had to reformat my Athlon (S-ATA drives, Partition Magic, etc), so I had to plug it again. Back and forth, floppy waltz... You get the idea.

Now, I only have a floppy cable hooked loose on my computers' motherboards, and whenever I need to use a floppy, I just hook it up and remove it afterward, I don't even install it in a bay. :D

But yeah, I think they'll disappear, with all the new hardware/OS changes coming, I guess those components are gonna support newer technologies more and more.
 
I don't include them in my builds but I keep a couple around my bench and my desk so if I need a floppy I can shutdown hang it off the cables all ghetto-like until I'm done with it, then next time I reboot, I pull it out again, ususally I only need them for setting up and sometimes for other things, but it's usually not used much, so I stick with my thumbdrive.

but I do agree that the tech is a little old, and maybe should be dropped but it won't for quite awile
 
Mr. D. said:
Yes I do. They will become obsolete when all computers support booting from USB devices and when MS supports installing drivers for 3rd party mass storage devices through USB.
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MS does that now...I use a USB floppy drive for all my XP builds where I need a SATA driver disk.

No need for an internal floppy drive
 
MS does that now...I use a USB floppy drive for all my XP builds where I need a SATA driver disk.
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Huh? I didnt know that that could be done :eek: :eek:

Doesnt Windows look to the floppycontroller directly without polling the BIOS first?
 
Mr. D. said:
Huh? I didnt know that that could be done :eek: :eek:

Doesnt Windows look to the floppycontroller directly without polling the BIOS first?
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as long as your mobo has support for USB floppy drives in the boot selection then you can use a USB floppy for the F6 portion of XP install to add additional drivers..

Not sure about Win2K.. dont do many 2K builds anymore.
 
Uncle Toxie said:
....as soon as old farts like me stop installing them. :D
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...hey, I resemble that remark....:D

I always include a floppy in new builds because they are well worth the eight or nine bucks in convenience they offer for DOS boots, BIOS flashes, etc.

Obsolete? IMHO - As soon as you can "count" on being able to boot from a USB flash drive, the party's over.

JMHO - B.B.S.
 
in my normal systems, yes, i do install it... somehow floppies hate me and about 80% of the computers i build, the floppy drive, never works... actually wait... only one computer i built had a drive that worked... another computer i built, im pretty sure the drive worked too cus it was new but never tested it

i just install it cus i never know if im gonna need to use floppies, someone may give me a floppy to check something on it, so i never know.. its cheap too, so thats not a problem... however, when i build mods, i usually dont include the floppy drive because it takes up too much space and most of my mods dont have excessive space for something that probably wont even work or be used
 
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