SAVE THE FLOPPY 2

[langleymass]

Naturally I am curious as to what everyone thinks, but I am considering starting a new campaign. Maybe I am just a sucker for lost causes, but I think this is quite worthwhile. We need to SAVE THE FLOPPY.

Yes, it's a technology that is at least 15 years old. It's slow and noisy. But the truth is that the floppy disk still provides a combination of conveniences that we simply do not have with other media.

1. Floppies can be injected and ejected with the power off, unlike CD's.
2. You don't need special software or even special drivers to use a floppy, unlike CD's.
3. A floppy does not a need a jewel case, unlike CD's.
4. The floppy can be used on computers that are ten years old if you happen to have them.
5. The drive only costs about $10. The disks are often free with rebates.
6. It uses less power than a CD-ROM.
7. Often 1.44 MB is still all you need.
8. You can write on floppy-disk labels with almost any pen. You can use a Sharpie on a CD, but it often smears.
9. You can put labels on floppies over and over. This is not as easy with CD's.
10. Floppy write-protection is easily switched on and off.
11. The floppy disk still easily fits into your shirt pocket.
12. Floppy drives work well even if the drive is on its side.
13. Floppy drives use less power than CD-ROM drives.
14. Duplicating floppies is easy with just one command.
15. Floppy drives do not use jumpers.
16. Floppy drives take up less space then CD-ROM drives.

Feel free to add more of your own reasons. But I hope you agree that we need to SAVE THE FLOPPY.

 

[langleymass]

I was disappointed with the LS-120 also. It was definitely a true replacement for the floppy. It seemed to have a lot of reliability issues, and it didn't have the speed increase that it needed to stick around.

It came and went pretty quickly. Perhaps, if it had been given more time, some of its many bugs would have been worked out.

When we get an acceptable replacement for the floppy that lasts, I will happy to abandon it also. So far, nothing has been found.

 

[jsteph]

The one thing that made the floppy so effective and useful was, like so many things in this industry (including software protocols, etc) it's acceptance as a universal standard.

Virtually every machine came with one. So the fact that it was pathetically slow, not particularly reliable, and it's storage became woefully insufficient as time went on--those things were all given a pass because of the installed base--very little else was in it's favor. Were it introduced in the mid '90s to compete with the other alternatives mentioned here, I believe it would have died a faster death than the Zip drive.
--Jim

 

[pmonett]

langleymass :

Cannot agree with you on that last remark. There is a true replacement for the floppy : the USB stick. USB is now universal (on all new PCs at least), it is fast (compared to floppy), it is reliable and it is even starting to be bootable.

Sounds like a prime candidate to me.

Pascal.

 

[Sympology]

One flaw in the USB v floppy

You don't need Admin rights to use a floppy for the first time on someone else's pc.

At our company (and very many others) a user cannot simply take someone elses USB stick and shove it in and work. It's personal opinon if you think this is a good thing or not.

Stu..


Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[pmonett]

Where I work, NOBODY can use a USB stick. Only the helpdesk, with a special logon account, is entitled to using one. USB is disabled by default.

Other than that, I believe it is entirely possible to disable the floppy for the user as well as USB. Of course, users with Admin rights to their PC will not be subject to the same restriction.

Pascal.

 

[langleymass]

When a USB stick sells for $1, I will consider it a replacement for the floppy. I do think it's one of the best candidates.

 

[RoyVidar]

Sorry, you expect something that
1 - exceeds the floppy capacity approx 64-2048 times
2 - can stuff it's whole capacity in the same time that a (1,44 MB) floppy can
3 - with somewhat increased probability of recovery than the floppy (sorry, thats experience talking;-))
4 - is more available on newer computers than the floppy (a recount of the delivery of my last two computers - one without floppy and one with a USB attachable floppy drive (how often have I done that - ha) - both laptops)
should be at the same price? (erm - what about the belief in Santa Claus and the Tooth fairy?)

We've seen computers being able to boot from much more than floppies. I don't think it's much relevant to embrace one kind of (current) storage medium. After all, it's the informatin that counts, and since the mid 90's, it seems most "information" from our usual suspects (sorry, users) seems to exceed the limitations of the floppy thingie... Today it's the "usb thingie" tomorrow it's... yow - the floppy - FLOPPY - man, that's history, last time I used one must have been in the previous century...

Roy-Vidar

 

[johnpoole]

don't feel bad langleymass, i still miss my eight track, but the floppy is on the same bandwagon. my reasoning, if it's only 1.4 email, shared drive.. to many options for a file that small. if i don't have email access, why boot the pc?

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[hotfusion]

Long live the floppy disk!
There is no other format, other than the HDD itself, which can be booted from directly from the BIOS in almost every PC format computer.

Before anyone mentions newer computers being able to boot from CD-ROM, USB and so-forth, this is not the point; I run a network of several computers at home, all but one running Windows 98SE, the slowest computer being a pentium 133 of about 10 years old. Why build a new computer for perhaps £300 when a free one is quite capable of accessing the internet and running Wordpad?? These computers are for the kids, after all.

For all these computers a floppy drive is a must, as using that I can partition and format drives, initiate the installation of the OS, run diagnostic software and create partition images for easy rectification of kids' 'errors'.

And I know I'm not the only one running networks of older computers, my local primary school does so also, and likewise would be lost without the floppy disk.

There have been odd instances where I've needed to transport a few hundred Kb of data to a remote computer somewhere, one without the drivers for a USB stick or similar, and no internet connection. Burning this amount of data to a CD-ROM would be cumbersome, to say the least.

In short, I forsee a time when the Floppy Disk will be truly redundant, but in my opinion that time mustn't be for many years yet - there are far too many older computers in circulation. I feel it is a great pity that certain sectors are attempting to accelerate the floppy's demise, for no good reason that I can see.

Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/index.htm

 

[BobRodes]

I still have a 5.25" disk drive at home. I can transfer data for you for the low price of $65.00 per byte....

Bob

 

[hotfusion]

If we come down to the issue of costs - floppy versus CD-ROM, I agree the CD-ROM comes out top; However, I for one, have accumulated dozens of floppy disks over time, all tested (Spinrite) and formatted and I dare say the same is true of many other 'old hands', so I don't have to buy any. This rarely happens with CD-ROMs....
I even received a SCSI card driver on one last year!

If 'they' wish to rob me of my foppy disks, they will have to prise them from my cold, dead hands!
Andy.

Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/index.htm

 

[Wrathchild]

down with the floppy! My old computer came with the LS-120 "Superdisk"...what a farce! I never even used it for that purpose. Can a floppy fit on my keychain like a Jumpdrive?? I think not!

 

[BobRodes]

I always had trouble putting them in my jacket pocket...

 

[langleymass]

Finally, someone did come up with something that a USB flash drive does that a floppy does not do. Yes, you can put them on a key chain.

 

[grande]

DOWN WITH CDS! UP WITH JUMP/FLASH DRIVES!

-------------------------
Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[dwarfthrower]

When a USB stick sells for $1, I will consider it a replacement for the floppy. I do think it's one of the best candidates.

128Mb USB Flash Drive - $34.98

= $0.27 per Mb

1.44Mb floppies - $8.98 (Pk 10)

= $0.62 per Mb

Floppy disk space is twice as expensive as Flash Drive space.

[sub]Never be afraid to share your dreams with the world.
There's nothing the world loves more than the taste of really sweet dreams.[/sub]

 

[Grenage]

I truly am at a loss to see why anyone would want to 'save the floppy'. As mentioned many times in previous posts:

It is more expensive than USB media/CD.
It is slower than USB media/CD.
It is less reliable than USB media/CD.
It holds about 1/1300 of modern USB media.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[jrbarnett]

As I've mentioned above Grenage, there are things that have to be done with a floppy that cannot be done with a CD or USB stick (eg creating an ASR or repair disk depending on the operating system, and you need a bootable floppy to create a bootable CD or USB key). Until that issue is addressed, floppy drives will still be needed on critical systems.

John

 

[pmonett]

In other words, despite all its failings, the floppy drive is still a full-fledged part of any server room setup.
As for myself, I have a USB key that I very much prefer, given its capacity and speed. But when Windows goes south and I have to recover a totally broken OS, I'm quite glad to still have a floppy drive.

I won't be sad to see floppys disappear, but I don't think that will happen soon.

Pascal.

 

[Glenn9999]

The problem is that one can make a CD-image and have it last from that point on. Once you do that, the floppy becomes a moot piece of hardware. You can even download some wonderful utility CDs off the net and take care of the problem that way.