Floppies are the Future

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Xvash2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
300
My friend Evan went through this:

Teacher: "This week we are going to start writing our speeches. you will each need to buy a floppy disk to save your work on to that you get at school so you can take it home and work on it at home to."

(kid raises her hand and says...) "what if my computer doesn't have a floppy disk drive?"

Teacher:well thats just stupid because your generation relies to much on the internet and with all the people using the internet each day it's going to crash down and then we will all rely on floppy disks to store our information!"

-Next Day-

Evan: mrs. plasterr i looked on my computers and neither have them have floppy disk drives so i didn't get one.

Teacher:EVAN! THAT WAS THE ASSIGNMENT TO GET A FLOPPY DISK! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE AT YOUR HOUSE THATS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT GETTING A COMPUTER WITH A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE!

This is not a joke. She told this to all of her comm. apps. classes.

Seriously. Its a real story.

Time for some end-of-the-world shopping. 200 floppies for $5 at CompUSA!
 
That teacher needs to meet the business end of a flash drive. :) And Evan needs to learn to think for himself, and not take everything so damn literally. :p
 
Xvash2 said:
My friend Evan went through this:

Teacher: "This week we are going to start writing our speeches. you will each need to buy a floppy disk to save your work on to that you get at school so you can take it home and work on it at home to."

(kid raises her hand and says...) "what if my computer doesn't have a floppy disk drive?"

Teacher:well thats just stupid because your generation relies to much on the internet and with all the people using the internet each day it's going to crash down and then we will all rely on floppy disks to store our information!"

-Next Day-

Evan: mrs. plasterr i looked on my computers and neither have them have floppy disk drives so i didn't get one.

Teacher:EVAN! THAT WAS THE ASSIGNMENT TO GET A FLOPPY DISK! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE AT YOUR HOUSE THATS YOUR FAULT FOR NOT GETTING A COMPUTER WITH A FLOPPY DISK DRIVE!

This is not a joke. She told this to all of her comm. apps. classes.

Seriously. Its a real story.

Time for some end-of-the-world shopping. $200 floppies for $5 at CompUSA!
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I'd tell her that she doesn't know what she's talking about and floppies are the worst method of storing data that I've ever seen. Flash drives, CD, DVD and now Blue Ray/HD-DVD media are all superior choices. Hell external USB/Firewire/eSATA devices are all better choices than a floppy disk drive.

If she gave me shit, I'd go to the school officials and explain that this crazy teacher has no business teaching a class that she obviously isn't qualified to teach.
 
I'd rather write down the one's and zero's on an Etch-a-Sketch than use a floppy drive again.
 
I don't think you have been shopping for floppies at CompUSA lately. 5$ will only get you 10 floppies. I've had to use them thrice in the last 4 months.
 
I'd have your friend politely educate the teacher about new technology. If approached the right way, the teacher would probably appreciate learning.

She probably honestly does not even know about flash drives and/or re-writable CD/DVD media. If you show her a little flash drive + explain to her that it holds TONS more data than a floppy does + does it more reliably she'll probalby get one for herself.

I'm sure the school will still keep floppies in all of the computers for years to come.. districts simply can't force students to purchase the more expensive alternative.

I've been around teachers my whole life... they aren't hardware people at all + don't know anything about the computer that they haven't been tought. This doesn't mean they aren't good teachers... they just aren't technical people. In general technical people don't make great teachers... except for teachers who teach technical trades.
 
Evan needs to show up in class with a flash drive, and nonchalantly plug it in, backup his work and go about his business, and wait for his teacher to inquire as to what he is doing. At that point he can quietly explain to his teacher that he is using a flash drive in place of a floppy... and then politely welcome his teacher to 2007;)
 
Wow. Just wow. It reminds me of the CS teacher at my high school who was like "I can't make the internet work, I've rebooted, tried ipconfig /release and renew, reinstalled network drivers and everything!" It turned out that the ethernet cable was unplugged the whole time...
 
Long ago when I started out doing technical support, I got a call that had been bounced around for 2 hours, and was on the verge of needing a plane flight to correct it due to it being a high-producer with the problem. I was the level 3 tech (which meant that I got all of the calls for the irate or hopelessly phux0red).

They couldn't connect to the network. As a "level 3" tech, I asked, "What has changed?" "Oh, we had a hurricane warning and had to move the computers. I have two cables under my desk, and we've tried both of them and neither works."

2 drops? "Plug one end into the wall" I said.

"Oh, we didn't try that." "Plug the other end into your computer." "Oh wow, it works!" :sigh:

That right there is about how technically advanced that teacher is - not the end user, the 2 *other* technicians that messed around with the call for 2 hours without asking "What has changed?" ! In both cases, the answer is "A hell of a lot, welcome to earth." :p
 
I haven't used a floppy disk in years (5ish)...In fact I have thrown out all of mine...its all flash drives, and those mini-dvd-rw's to hold all my data.
 
At least floppies are bootable in MS. It's about time those guys get off of their backsides and make USB devices bootable, so I can take my OS with me on a thumb drive.
 
general said:
It's about time those guys get off of their backsides and make USB devices bootable, so I can take my OS with me on a thumb drive.
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You could try this...or you could use this utility to do the same in less time... And of course, you can use this to run your os from a usb drive.. Lots of options....
 
Uhmm...I have been using bootable USB flash drives for quite a while know. I especially like SLAX
 
While on the topic of Floppies, I had to ship around 1k floppy disks for a customer a few days ago. It ended up costing him $50.00 to ship all these useless little pieces of plastic. Funny thing was all those floppies were his companies data back-up, he told me they were dumb asses for doing it that way...I just said "yea"............. :eek:
 
There still are a few unique uses for floppies. Raid setup (F6). I have a rather expensive automative repair program that requires a floppy key disk at install and will accept absolutely nothing else.
 
marsofold said:
There still are a few unique uses for floppies. Raid setup (F6). I have a rather expensive automative repair program that requires a floppy key disk at install and will accept absolutely nothing else.
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What automotive repair program is that?

Just curious...
 
I've kept a floppy from a pc from 5 years ago. It just follows me to each new build.

Used it for flashing my video card and mobo bios. They still come in handy.

But for school a flash drive is a must.
 
At our school we can't use flash drives anymore...because someone was "getting around" their blocking software. Isn't that kind of like, lets take away cars because someone had an accident?
 
Stupac said:
I've kept a floppy from a pc from 5 years ago. It just follows me to each new build.

Used it for flashing my video card and mobo bios. They still come in handy.

But for school a flash drive is a must.
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lol I found about 30 floppys in a case not even used... the only thing I use floopys is like you said mobo bios and flashing my video cards. I do use a 4Gb sandisk flash drive at school I put everything I need for both of my computer classes. But a floppy? heck I would need my pack of 30...
 
Its actually funny since I understand how a teacher (who was not up on tech at ALL) could do this.

Our books for Office 2003 have instructions on saving to floppy...ONLY. They never talk about saving to a flash drive, my docs, a network share, ALWAYS to a floppy. The teacher here is smart though and says "Just save it to your network share as we always do :rolleyes: "

Also, floppies are still needed at times. There are somethings that just require floppy (older bios updaters mostly) and somethings that are just harder to do without floppy (it sucks having to make a floppy emulation boot CD). Then again, now most computers dont have them so it sucks for us techs that go around needing to use them at times.

I still like the dell I had to upgrade the bios on that had no floppy yet the bios upgrader required a floppy to install :confused:
 
I think people over do it on BIOS updates anyway. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless the BIOS update specifically fixes a problem you are experiencing, it's not even worth the effort.
 
Eickst said:
I think people over do it on BIOS updates anyway. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless the BIOS update specifically fixes a problem you are experiencing, it's not even worth the effort.
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It's 2007. Flashing your BIOS through a floppy is bullshit too.
 
Dan_D said:
It's 2007. Flashing your BIOS through a floppy is bullshit too.
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umm so what would you recommend ? flashing it via windows ? or wasting a cd for <1mb

cuz to me, both them ideas are stupid, flashing bios via windows is asking for trouble and wasting 699mb of a burnable cd is retarded also and usb sticks, well most pc's cant/wont allow you to boot from them so even thats out of the question.

Floppy is still king for BIOS flash and raid setups and for a windows startup disc, their is no need for cd overkill when it is a few uber small files that come out to less than 1mb or thereabouts IMO.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
umm so what would you recommend ? flashing it via windows ? or wasting a cd for <1mb

cuz to me, both them ideas are stupid, flashing bios via windows is asking for trouble and wasting 699mb of a burnable cd is retarded also and usb sticks, well most pc's cant/wont allow you to boot from them so even thats out of the question.

Floppy is still king for BIOS flash and raid setups and for a windows startup disc, their is no need for cd overkill when it is a few uber small files that come out to less than 1mb or thereabouts IMO.
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Absolute bullshit.

Flashing with a floppy is retarded. It's 2007 and there should be ZERO reason to have a floppy drive in a modern PC. A USB drive, or CD or any other method is FAR superior to a floppy disk for anything. Many of the new BIOS on motherboard supports flashing from the hard disk or removable media in BIOS without actually loading an operating system. That is how it SHOULD be.

Just because some companies are lazy and haven't gotten the whole flashing using non-floppy methods down doesn't make those methods stupid. BTW flashing in Windows is fine. I've been doing it for YEARS without issue. I can't tell you how many Compaq's, HP's, Dell's and systems of my own I've flashed using Windows based methods without ANY problems at all. It wasn't until ASUS' bullshit ASUS Update software and the Striker Extreme that I ever had a problem flashing in Windows.

Only being able to load storage controller drivers through a floppy is also bullshit. Microsoft should have corrected this problem with Windows 2000 at the very latest. Finally with Vista, the need to load those drivers via floppy is now gone.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
well most pc's cant/wont allow you to boot from them so even thats out of the question.
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Get a recent PC, most in the last 4-5 years allow booting off usb.

Microsoft should be ashamed of their reliance on floppy only drivers. Of course, I know they are incapable of being ashamed, they are probably proud of it for some bullshit PR: "Our SafeDriver(tm) floppy-based install system adds multiple layers of security..... bleh" The few times I've had to do a floppy-initiated windows install, I have marvelled at how it takes 5 floppies before it can start the install from the CD, while linux can do it with 1. Plenty of time to think about it when it is loading all those unneeded drivers.
 
Dan_D said:
Absolute bullshit.

Flashing with a floppy is retarded. It's 2007 and there should be ZERO reason to have a floppy drive in a modern PC.
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Just because MS havent got their act together, it doesnt mean to say that the floppy isnt valuable for shitty little jobs that take up less than 1mb of space, WE would all prefer to dump the floppy and use something better, but fact remains is at this moment in time their is no real competition for shitty tiny little files that you need to use before windows startups.

Just because in this day and age with technical advances the floppy is outdated severly, it doesnt mean to say it hasnt got its uses.

And because you think its "absolute bullshit" doesnt mean to say that your right and I am wrong, you dislike the floppy, so do I, but a floppy drive is one of those things that you dont use for ages then all of a sudden you use it for whatever reason for those shitty little jobs that either a cd is too big for or for when you need to do something before windows boots up and A, your pc cant/wont boot from a usb stick or B,you dont have a usb stick.

Just because you have been flashing bios from windows for however long doesnt mean to say its a wise thing to do, fuk windows is one fuk up of a operating system and anything can happen during the flash, but since your a "motherboard" moderator you must be correct that a floppy drive is totally fukin useless :rolleyes:

But until things are as they SHOULD be i.e totally eliminating the need for a floppy drive entirely then it is one of the most undervalued pieces of hardware in a pc, as even I dont hardly use the floppy, but then after a year of not using their is times when i say to myself, phew thank fuk I still have my floppy drive for whatever reason, whether it be bios flash or some company says i need to create emergency startup "floppies" for their software after i have just installed said software, until all those companies stop using the floppy for data storage then it will still be one of the most undervalued and hardly used pieces of hardware in a pc.

I would rather dump the shit, but personally, I have had times when I have actually been glad i didnt dump the drive from my pc and I bet many many others have done the same, many months/years of non use but for some weird important thing they need a floppy and have been glad they still have one, I just wonder how many ppl thats happened to.
 
taqueso said:
Get a recent PC, most in the last 4-5 years allow booting off usb.
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Well duh, aint you the bright one, do you think that the pc's in my sig are less than 4-5 years old ? and no they all cant boot from usb flash drive...
 
CD's are better than floppies... why does it matter if you waste 699MB? They're hella cheap!
 
Wow, this is the first time I've seen Dan so emotional over a subject.

Did someone attack you with a Floppy disk or something? :p
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Just because MS havent got their act together, it doesnt mean to say that the floppy isnt valuable for shitty little jobs that take up less than 1mb of space, WE would all prefer to dump the floppy and use something better, but fact remains is at this moment in time their is no real competition for shitty tiny little files that you need to use before windows startups.
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I am not sure what the hell you mean here. Any motherboard made in the last four or five years can boot to a USB disk drive. That means BIOS flashing and anything else is easily done with the USB disk. Your argument makes no sense here.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Just because in this day and age with technical advances the floppy is outdated severly, it doesnt mean to say it hasnt got its uses.
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Yes, that's exactly what it means.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
And because you think its "absolute bullshit" doesnt mean to say that your right and I am wrong, you dislike the floppy, so do I, but a floppy drive is one of those things that you dont use for ages then all of a sudden you use it for whatever reason for those shitty little jobs that either a cd is too big for or for when you need to do something before windows boots up and A, your pc cant/wont boot from a usb stick or B,you dont have a usb stick.
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It is absolute bullshit, and there is a way to accomplish anything a floppy can do with something better and more reliable. So why bother?

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Just because you have been flashing bios from windows for however long doesnt mean to say its a wise thing to do, fuk windows is one fuk up of a operating system and anything can happen during the flash, but since your a "motherboard" moderator you must be correct that a floppy drive is totally fukin useless :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I am not a moderator. I am a reviewer. There is a difference. It doesn't make me automatically right. In this instance I surely am. If you have a stable Windows system, flashing the BIOS within it is fine. Anything can happen during a flash whether you use Windows or not. I've had great luck with it, and if you aren't comfortable flashing within Windows, then don't. I am comfortable doing it so long as the board isn't an ASUS.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
But until things are as they SHOULD be i.e totally eliminating the need for a floppy drive entirely then it is one of the most undervalued pieces of hardware in a pc, as even I dont hardly use the floppy, but then after a year of not using their is times when i say to myself, phew thank fuk I still have my floppy drive for whatever reason, whether it be bios flash or some company says i need to create emergency startup "floppies" for their software after i have just installed said software, until all those companies stop using the floppy for data storage then it will still be one of the most undervalued and hardly used pieces of hardware in a pc.
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Hardly anyone or any company uses floppies anymore. The entire industry needs to get with the program and pitch those damn things. I keep one handy just in case as well, but I do not leave one installed in my machine.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
I would rather dump the shit, but personally, I have had times when I have actually been glad i didnt dump the drive from my pc and I bet many many others have done the same, many months/years of non use but for some weird important thing they need a floppy and have been glad they still have one, I just wonder how many ppl thats happened to.
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That may be true, but seriously, you can accomplish all the same tasks without a floppy drive. The ONE and ONLY reason to keep one around is setting up a RAID in Windows XP. That is only because Microsoft didn't allow us any other option.

ChingChang said:
CD's are better than floppies... why does it matter if you waste 699MB? They're hella cheap!
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Agreed. Even better though is a USB flash drive. They are cheap, and are as easy to write data to as a hard drive. Plus you can always delete your files when done.

AppaYipYip said:
Wow, this is the first time I've seen Dan so emotional over a subject.

Did someone attack you with a Floppy disk or something? :p
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I think the fact that floppies and some other legacy technologies are still in place is reprehensible at best. Technology should move forward. PS/2, serial ports, floppy drives, IDE ports and PCI slots need to go away.

Companies should produce third party add in cards with legacy features if needed for special applications, but your average board should not have that crap anoymore.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Well duh, aint you the bright one, do you think that the pc's in my sig are less than 4-5 years old ? and no they all cant boot from usb flash drive...
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The comment was made mostly in jest, but I own PCs with similar specs to all the ones in your sig (C2D, A64 socket 754 and 939, and Athlon XP socket A) and they all will boot off USB given the correct selection in the BIOS. I do admit that I used to own a socket A mobo that would not.
 
I bought a floppy disk drive just for the hell of it since I had an extra 3.5'' bay anyway, and it costed me like $8.

I must say - it did save me once when the ds3 F9 bios sent my computer in endless cycles at startup. Thank God I had that F7 on a floppy disk at the bottom of my desk drawer :D

I always seem to never know where my USB sticks are, so I just do all the bios flashing through floppies.
 
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