Floppy ?

A

ATLMOBO

n00b
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Messages
32
Do I need a 3.5" floppy drive in my new system? Will the Bios or XP look for the floppy before it boots up therefore not letting my to load windows? No need for a floppy if I don't need one. I never use 3.5" disks anymore.

Thanks,
 
Most likely not, but you may need one to load a SATA or RAID driver depending on if you need it to get XP to recognize your SATA or RAID controller before installing.

Other than that... there is really no need for floppies anymore.

EDIT: You can also set the BIOS on your mobo to disable the floppy controller so it won't look for a drive thats not there.
 
I am personally a fan of the mitsumi multiple card reader floppy combo drive. It has a bunch of flash memory card reader ports and a floppy for about $25. It is a good compromise because it is more functional than a floppy drive and if you ever need the drive it is there. I would assume that newegg has them, if not www.directron.com probably does.
 
thanks for the replys but I think I'm actually going to disable it in the bios. This way it should boot up corrrectly. Thanks again.
 
I physically removed my floppy drive to make way for a bunch of hard drives to form a large raid array. Can't say I've missed it.

I already had windows xp installed and I ghosted it before hand so I didn't need to install xp from scratch onto the new raid array and thus, didn't need to insert a floppy for my raid drivers.

That seriously is it's one and only use in my system.
 
Floppy = YES.

Good for making emergency boot disks, RAID drivers, BIOS flashes, etc.

Get one.
 
Drucifer said:
Floppy = YES.

Good for making emergency boot disks, RAID drivers, BIOS flashes, etc.

Get one.
Click to expand...

I agree, I finnally got another one after 4+ years, When I need it for Raid Drivers :eek:
 
Can't you just load RAID drivers from a bootable USB device? Is it possible to just use a pen drive instead of a floppy to do it? I'm ready to get rid of my floppy drive in favor of just a simple 128MB or 256MB pen drive.
 
I wanna know too, But I heard from multiple sources say no..
So I didnt bother Much easier to go get a floppy..

What Brand is your floppy's???

Samsung/Black over here!

burningrave101 said:
Can't you just load RAID drivers from a bootable USB device? Is it possible to just use a pen drive instead of a floppy to do it? I'm ready to get rid of my floppy drive in favor of just a simple 128MB or 256MB pen drive.
Click to expand...
 
FLOPPY = NO
USB FLOPPY = YES

;)

I took my floppy drive out of my computer to allow extra room for other hardware, and I just use my free USB floppy drive that came with my laptop when I'm in a pinch and need it.
 
Everything you'd need a floppy for you can really find ISO's now-a-day's though anyway
 
How about just slipstreaming all the RAID drivers and other drivers you need onto your Windows install CD and then you dont have to worry about hitting F6 and loading them from a floppy?
 
I still have a floppy for the random BIOS upgrade or memtest. Plus, what is it, $5? Or take one from an old machine. Nice to have, even if you never use floppies.
 
Another vote for having a floppy drive.. Every now and again you end up needing it..
 
burningrave101 said:
Can't you just load RAID drivers from a bootable USB device? Is it possible to just use a pen drive instead of a floppy to do it? I'm ready to get rid of my floppy drive in favor of just a simple 128MB or 256MB pen drive.
Click to expand...


Only if microsoft were smart. The only way to load drivers needed for your windows install is with a floppy unless you slipstream the drivers into your install cd. Altough, I beleive I may have used an external USB floppy once or twice.
 
If they'd stop putting raid drivers on floppies, the damn things would be obsolete! IThat's the only reason I've used it at all. I didn't put one in my mom's system when I built hers, since it has a PATA drive, and we've never had a need for one.
 
MrSlacker said:
i use floppy. i barely use it but still have it for BIOS flashes and Memtest.
Click to expand...

you could always use a bootable cd for memtest.

i really like the ultimate boot cd because it has a couple different memory tests included, and a bunch of other useful tools, even a HD cloning tool

not to mention that it fits on a tiny pocket cd-r :)

edit: link just in case you needed it http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
 
I've done RAID drivers and BIOS flashes without floppies, but I can see why some would prefer the convenience of floppy disks. For example, the oscilloscopes I work with use floppy disks. Just realize that in this day and age, they are completely unnecessary for most tasks.
 
Jasonx82 said:
I wanna know too, But I heard from multiple sources say no..
So I didnt bother Much easier to go get a floppy..

What Brand is your floppy's???

Samsung/Black over here!
Click to expand...
USB pen drives are not all compatible all the time as a boot device, besides, I am pretty sure that to load your RAID drivers during the install, in goes the floppy!

I use my floppy quite regularly, to make boot disks for my Linux boxes that simply are too old to boot from CD (mostly P166-233s, they are in my 'fun zone'). Plus, there is just something about the sweet, innocent, little disk that makes a tear show in my eye... :sniff

Black Mitsumi in my rig!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top