07-25-2002, 07:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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What Has Your Floppy Drive Done for You Lately?
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,103037,tk,dn072402X,00.asp
Very interesting article on why floppy drives just won't die. I have to wonder why the reporter didn't press the OEMs on obvious floppy replacements like CompactFlash, SD, etc.
"Floppy drives were once an indispensable part of personal computing. But not anymore: 21 years after the introduction of the 3 1/2-inch floppy disk, the floppy drive looks to be on the brink of extinction. But in spite of the floppy's creep toward obsolescence, PC makers aren't ready to give up on them--yet. Less than 10 percent of us store data on a stingy 1.44 megabyte disk, according to Disk/Trend, a market research firm. And that number is falling: storage-media manufacturer Maxell says the floppy industry is shrinking at a rate of 5 percent yearly.
"Floppies are too small for MP3 files, and good luck putting a PowerPoint presentation on one," says Jim Porter, president of Disk/Trend. Four years ago Apple was bold enough to ditch the floppy drive altogether with its iMac computer. It hasn't looked back since, eliminating the floppy drive from all subsequent systems. However, Apple's attitude is hardly contagious among Windows-based PC makers. No matter how much companies such as IBM dislike the floppy drive, they continue to stand behind them."
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07-25-2002, 07:15 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 185
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I've no Floppy drive on my computers since 1998!
I've used ZIP and now CD to boot in a simple DOS environnement...
But I'm dreaming of the day we will be able to boot from those KeyChain-USB-Memory-things! That would be great and fast... Every new OS support them natively... We just need an option in our BIOS now!
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07-25-2002, 07:21 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 138
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So, how about posting here card readers that fit into the 3.5" drive bay? Anyone has any experience with those?
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07-25-2002, 07:22 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 312
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Re: What Has Your Floppy Drive Done for You Lately?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,103037,tk,dn072402X,00.asp
Very interesting article on why floppy drives just won't die. I have to wonder why the reporter didn't press the OEMs on obvious floppy replacements like CompactFlash, SD, etc.
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I still love my Floppy! The last time I used it is 4 months ago when I've crashed my Notebook XP and need it to run FDISK. Without my Floppy I had to throw away my 2.500 � Notebook and hey, the Floppy wasn't in the box when I purchased it, it was an accessory (which I purchased anyway as a C64 Datasette guy ;-)
However, your idea of the "bootable" CF/SD card is great too (at least for Notebooks) but as "Butch" also wrote, we need a BIOS switch at all!
My one still shows me Copyrights from the 80's... ;-)
__________________
Cheers ~ Arne, MS MVP - Mobile Devices
Editor in Chief the::unwired - where mobility meets wireless
http://www.theunwired.net |
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07-25-2002, 07:34 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 390
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here is what I want to know, How come there is almost no single laptop that has built in SD slot? Sony has one with Memstick, but really...
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07-25-2002, 07:36 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 51
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I used my floppy drive only four days ago to hand off our church logo to a church co-worker. I won't even think twice about giving her the 1.44 MB disk, but you would need to cut my hands off to take away my precious 128 MB CF card.
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07-25-2002, 07:36 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by gwinter
So, how about posting here card readers that fit into the 3.5" drive bay? Anyone has any experience with those?
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Yea, they are on the shelf at CompUSA for about $80. They have two slots and handle Type I, II, and III PCCards. Usually use one PCI slot for the controller and fit in a 3.5" bay. Mine works great. Use it with various adapters to read and write to PC card, CF, SD, MMC and even a Click drive. Even used it once for network connectivity. My NIC died suddenly (lightning in the area, and I was up as usual), so I threw a 802.ll PCMCIA card in a slot and was back on the network till I could get a new PCI NIC.
On the floppy issue, I'll give them up when you can assure me the PC will actually boot from and load an OS from the CD. I've got several that won't. Floopies are still cheap and easy for small file sharing. A picture, a word doc, a screen saver. None of the replacements really lend themselves to that casual give-away that floppies do. Yea, I know that CD's are actually cheaper, but I still have problems burning a 70K file to a CD to give to someone, especially since he can't erase it and give it back with something else on it. (CDRWs are still more $ than floppies)
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07-25-2002, 07:36 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 157
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Yeah, dump the floppy and add SD or CF slots.
__________________
Charles Pickrell
Sacramento Mobiole Computing SIG
A chapter of the NorCal Mobile Computing SIG
www.mobilecomputingsig.com |
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07-25-2002, 07:40 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 289
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There were a few ultra portable devices (laptops) that came with both a CF and PCMCIA slot. The IBM X something come to mind
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07-25-2002, 07:48 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 360
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Floppies
First of all how falic are computers?
You have a floppy drive. But Hard drives are better. Bigger is better. And floppies just don't do the deal like a hard drive.
But anyway. I prefere an LS120 to a standard floppy and I am considering upgrading my zip 100 to an internal 250. Standard floppies should go, but they won't because PC users and manufacturers can not decide on an alternative standard plain and simple.
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Linear Mode
