Good bye to FLOPPIES (??)

pickel · February 8th, 2003, 11:00 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/0...eut/index.html

Guess I won't be buying a Dell anytime soon. No way I could do without my floppy drive. Even bought a usb for my laptop. Too easy to share small files and drivers between computers and other users.

"Dell says the floppy will first be phased out on higher end computers because those users are more likely to be utilizing flash memory, portable hard drives, and other alternative portable storage devices."

Reckon I'll be "Low End" for a while longer!!!

thronka · February 8th, 2003, 11:03 PM

Right one Partner!

rpertusio · February 8th, 2003, 11:04 PM

Interesting article!

You're not going to consider purchasing from Dell, because they wont include a floppy? < shrug >

Actually, the USB flash devices seem quite handy. I wouldn't be surprised if other manufacturers now take the leap and leave out floppy drives on their systems.

However, has anyone tried to upgrade their BIOS from a USB flash device? I realize many newer motherboards can boot from a USB device.. but how many can't?

- rp

Brainchild · February 8th, 2003, 11:06 PM

I have to agree pickel, I use the floppy drive often myself.Og course it's going to be virtually impossible to load win95 without one

Yes I still have a couple of those around here

I wonder if I can get a 5.25 floppy drive in my p4

Beemer · February 8th, 2003, 11:11 PM

I'll sell you a 5 1/4" cheap brainchild!

Cheers!

zidane182 · February 9th, 2003, 11:41 AM

i need floppy for my 3.11!!

PresterJohn · February 9th, 2003, 11:52 AM

ditto...a machine w/o a floppy would be of little interest for me.

i don't use floppies much for transferring data (except to a laptop) but i do use it a lot for tech purposes (rebuilding machines, diags, etc.

stamenkd · February 9th, 2003, 05:28 PM

Didn't Apple Computers pull the same stunt when they first brought out the iMac, back in 1999/2000? I think their excuse was the attempt to reduce prices to stay competitive.

Oh and BrainChild, I got a 5 1/4" external drive for a Commodore 64 if you interested ;-)

Creatures · February 9th, 2003, 05:33 PM

read that in todays newspaper!

looks like i've got still one of those Dells with floppies

floppies are not that usefull today! just for some old dos games like Day of the tentacle 15 disks

or monkey island and for boot disk (or for those without CD-RW's)

i think they are crazy! or they need money (extern Floppy drivers!!)

Creatures

bill1971 · February 9th, 2003, 05:36 PM

I agree with John:

Floppies are a necessity for me, and other folks who work on these things. At some point in time, you need to upgrade a BIOS,
or run hard drive diagnostic utilities, even running XP.

With shipping, seems like floppies are still $13-$15 or so. Oddly, I just sent in a 52x CD burner rebate, which, if I eventually get it,
will have cost me $26 w/shipping. Doesn't seem right. . .

- Bill