What's Happening To Floppy Discs? The End of An Era

[kevlar557 0]

I still have a floppy drive in my computer for the reason that the first Doom I have on floppy disk No, seriously, I have to boot my old PII 233 with a floopy, and it doesnt have a CD-ROM drive, and I'm not wasting my money to get a CD-ROM for a 10 year old computer. I think it is a bad idea for computer companies to remove floppy drives from their newer computers. It is going to lead to a lot of voided warantes.

[JimBeam1405241475 0]

Personally I see no need for a floppy drive, but that's just me. My needs and preferences don't require it. I built my last computer mid way through last year and didn't even bother to buy a floppy drive. It might a little funny to some poeple, but on the front of my case, all you see is the one DVD combo drive. It's all I need though... and until I have problems with my BIOS I have no plans to instal one. I can understand why some poeple would need them though, and I agree that they shouldn't be disregarded when building computers. Especially where big manufacturers are concerned. They should at least offer a floppy drive as an option on their machines to save the void warranties.

[Mastermund 0]

Compared to USB keys, floppies are just not economical for newer computers. That's all it comes down to. USB 2.0 keys are fast, have a great deal of memory,and are fairly cheap. Now you won't need to split your files into little 1.4MB slices for a few floppies when you can put one whole floppy on a small MSD. If you really want to use floppies, there are external USB floppy drives.

[intelboy 0]

floppys are dead, the most of notebooks doesn't have it, if you need to carry data with you the best to use is pen drive (USB FLASH).By the other side you do nothing with 1.4MB. The FDD have completed they cicle of life, we dont have only one choice to replace them, now there are CDRW, USB FLASH, ZIPS, Mini-Disks, DVD RW, virtual disks on internet, etc. etc.

[rozalia 0]

True. The use of floppy disks has been slowing down for a while now. Even my computer's hardrive doesn't consist of a floppy drive. My family usually stick to the USB cable which stores just enough for us. (I usually use the 128 mb one for a few music files and documents that I want to switch from computer to labtop or vice versa). And about the DVD/Blue Ray topic, I heard about the harder shells somewhere else but I wasn't really too interested into it. Sure, it'll be nice that the DVD's don't get scratched up from too much usage but I think that would bode well with DVD rental buisnesses. My parents own some Korean soap opera series and we only watch them once so why bother with the harder shell? But I haven't heard all about the pro's and con's on Blue Ray so please, continue to enlighten me on it.

[Brian1405241474 0]

I haven't you a floppy for years. I just email files, use a USB drive (I have a 256 MB drive and might get a 1 GB iPod shuffle for portable file storage), or post files online. Floppies are just way too small and they can get ruined way too easily.

 

I miss my floppies, 3 inch and 5 inch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Trekkie101 0]

Floppies are dead, i dont see the use in them anymore, USB pen for me and CD or DVD, more storage, faster access just all round better technology, but sometimes I have to buy floppies incase in working on a no cd drive and its on an outdated OS. But i would rather not use floppies.

[Rudy1405241475 0]

It’s funny you should think that floppies are dead, because that’s not quite true. The technology is changing but still has a long way to go before floppies get toss out the door. Many schools still use floppies for students to store data, and many companies still think it cost too much to upgrade their computers. Floppies will be around for some time to come believe it or not.I am right now repairing a computer with windows 95 for someone, and the person don’t think it’s necessary to upgrade to windows 98 because he only want it for letters he said. There are a lot of people who would say the same thing and would only give up if they can no longer get what they want (floppies in this case).

[Brian1405241474 0]

Floppies can still be used, but there is almost always a better alternative. If the computer has internet access, files can be moved via the internet. If the computer has USB, files can be moved with a flash drive. Even burning CD's is an option. There's almost always a better alternative. So I think it is nearly the end of the floppy.

[Trekkie101 0]

Your right it maybe inst dead but it will be, there are so many other ways to work and save and its hard to find a computer thats been in use more than a yera to not have internet access or email. So theres always a way to transfer data without them. Plus they67 are very easy to damage.

[lasto i glemyr 0]

I've stopped using floppies. My main reason is that I find them to be unreliable; somehow my data keeps getting destroyed in transit. I don't know why this is, either...maybe my house just sits on some giant electromagnetic deadzone or something Instead, I have adopted a USB flash drive. It writes faster than floppies, it is smaller than a floppy, and it fits a lot more space. Also, they're getting pretty cheap; if you look, you can probably find a 512MB one for $30 or less.Also, what's the deal with these dual-layer DVDs? The burners are cheap, but I hear that the media costs in the neighborhood of $7-$10 PER DISC! I don't see much of a point in this technology if it costs so much...hopefully Blu-Ray won't be terribly expensive when it's released.