floppy drive; when will they ever become useless?

[Win_98]

Hmm been using it since the 90, haven't gotten rid of this ancient piece of junk. slow as hell crawling like a snail. well I'll throw them in the trashcan as soon I get me one of those LS-120meg zip drive. The only thing I find them useful for these day is to boot from it but other then that is just completely useless. I find it much much faster using a harddrive as storage or even transferring file. U know like a 2gig harddrive, attach it to a computer that I like to transfer file and then put it in another computer which is 1000 times faster then floppy 1.44meg say 1500 disks!!!
Heck even using Zip 100meg is 100 time faster LOL but U know the funny thing is they're still selling, very cheap thought but it ain't obsolete yet!!!

[Win_98]

Oh yea, if Im lazy I use parallel connection which get me about 6meg/min! not 1meg/min on floppy. not to mention the trouble of having to copy to disk then take disk and put in another computer that would average to about 500K/min! Like I said slow as snail. SO within one hour I could get bout 360meg of files transferred using parallel connection. but with floppy hmm 36meg?! at best. really pathetic, really crappy. hehehe. or If Im not so lazy with a spare 2.1gig, I disconnect
the cdrom and switch with it then transfer file at blazing speed of 120meg/min! now that rocks! It all depend if I have more then a few hundred meg of file to transfer from one computer to another.

[bhess]

I've never tried transfering from one comp to another with a parallel cable. How is it done? What about with USB?
thanks

[ThiemeMD]

Before you throw it in the trash can, send it to me! I'll put it in the computer I'm building out of spare parts for my sister's school! Hehehe... (The postage would be more than the value of the drive!)

But you're right... the era of the floppy disk is past... I feel it will be replaced by CDRW. ZIP drives and LS-120 are nice, but don't have enough market saturation to be considered "the floppy replacement." CDRW is reusable, bootable, has more capacity, and comparable speed. Now if I could only fit the disc in my shirt pocket....

ThiemeMD

[TechJumper]

what about minidisc CDRW,- when will that technology be optimized enough to have that kind of storage space.


Mike

[Dave_H]

ThiemeMD,
Here are some pocket sized CD's.
This company I have purchased some mini CD-R's and some "business card" sized. http://www.ioproducts.com/ioprod/mincdrmedjus.html
I haven't got around to trying these yet but here are some companies that sell mini CD-RW's. http://www.cdmedia-dvd.com/shopping/cdmedia/cdrw.htm http://www.rima.com/cdrw.htm

Not really too much smaller than a Zip disk in a case but kind of cool regardless.
Dave

[Mykex]

Yea there still kicken but,have you ever dealt with a PC without one. OMG the fustrations I have had! A place I worked had this free HP system that is only really used for some ordering and inventory from the provieor that gave it to us. Well little things like installing a printer that isnt included on win 98 drivers becomes a horror!Well that combined with the fact that the printer only came with discetts and no CD and because of the horrible phonelines max downloads of 2.1kbs on a 56k modem. This fustration compounded by an admin who absolutely forbids this pos PC to get anywhere near the office lan. Well thanks for an excuse to vent that... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[Savant]

not only have I used a system without one, I set one up for myself (every day use) without one because they're kinda pointless, so anyway after about 6 months I gave the motherboard to somebody in a computer I made for them, now naturally they wanted a floppy drive... Well it turned out that my motherboard had a bad floppy controller, and I didn't notice the entire time I had it! lol

Savant

[Win_98]

the problem with ls-120 drive is that they are still expensive well not very economical that is like the obsolute floppy disk. I wish they would down with the price where it cost only twice as much as a floppy drive and not 10 times more. I mean, the main reason for the floppy is when your system refuse to boot up and that when it really useful. The 100meg zip drive well they were alway expenisve and if I got to have it in all of my computer to be useful it can get pretty costly where it would cost me and arm and a leg. heh

[Imperion1]

Floppies are still useful, to a point. Helped me out today. Tried to oc my tbird 750, already at 1000, to 1100 with the mobo mod. Didn't work. Had my registry so messed up that I got as far as the desktop pic, no icons, and that was it. Even in safe mode.

Since I'm running Win ME, no dos, I used an EBD disk, started with cd-rom support, got the ol a: prompt, type scanreg and fixed my problem.
So floppies still come in handy.

Yea, thanks alot microshaft, for making Windblows ME without dos.