this is really a question for people who built their own PC(s) but is there a real need for a 3.5" floppy? do you have one and why? what are the real perks to one? surely, in this day and age, you can use something other than a 1.44mb floppy disk? I mainly ask because I was thinking of RAID and you need to install RAID drivers off a floppy right? Also, there is one on scan that is an all in one memory card reader, floppy drive, coffee machine etc. and was wondering whether to spend that almighty sum of £15 on it even though I'm not in dire need of what it has to offer.
I heard about RAID and floppys, what is recommend is you buy one only if you need it. For RAID i seen people say to borrow one from a friend or buy it and use it to just sort out RAID then discard it or pack it away, don't install it into the PC. Some cases don't even have slots for the floppy drives anymore. If i submit work to my university it will go on CD
Yeah I have a couple of other PC's I can temporarily "borrow" a floppy from so I will most likely do that.
Yeah I always swapped floppys from PC to PC but Im currently down to just 1 that still works! I like to have one in case something goes screwy with the PC and I can't do what I want with a Windows CD, gotta love Windows 98 boot disks
Yeah we have floppy disk drives laying around, primarily for boot disks and such stuff, but other than that I never build a PC with one permanently in, neither does anyone else I know... Sam.
I've got a couple floppy drives just being stored. Haven't needed to install one in a build for the last few years.
I use floppy to backup my computer. I create an image, zip it in several zips of 1.44MB, and transfer it onto Floppies. It's just 250GB of data. No seriously, I have one, but not installed on my computer. I only need it to install my SATA drivers else Windows XP SP2 goes (on everything you run), on random: "Invalid Win32 Application" or "Corrupted Data", or it works. Installing the SATA drivers AFTER windows XP is installed doesn't show any improvements. And good luck updating windows. I think you have more changes in winning anything in a slot machine then have a successful update done. So it NEEDS to be done before windows XP is installed. Problem doesn't occur in Windows Vista.
I used compressed air to blow the dust off mine, its just a dust collector now lol. With 4GB usb pens for £20, CDs at a few pence/cents each, it would be good if the OS setups could read the drivers from CDs/USBs
Whats a floppy drive? I have a few in a box of old spares in the loft; think I even have an old 3.5" floppy drive from when the disks were floppy!. Havent used a floppy in years.
Yawn, this comes up every 3 months or so. Remember that when XP was made everyone had a floppy disc drive and it was the cheapest way to deliver the drivers to be installed. Vista doesn't have this issue. And remember, you have Linux or Nlite to slipstream drivers
I have a few floppy drives available, but none installed. Shame, I love the sounds they make - I wish optical drives made the noises of floppy drives but in a less obtrusive manner, it'd be so much more satisfying.
usually only after too many lemonade's on a friday evening! still use one for bios flashes, although usb works fine, u cant beet a floppy for flashing!
I keep a drive available for BIOS flashes (both MB and GFX) but I don't have it installed in any rig, just hook it up when I need it.
I have 5 1/2" floppy but not in my main computer, though i have been think about putting it in my new computer as a joke. but i don't use floppy because they kill a motherboard i had.
nope no need for one any more. haha . i used to keep one for bios flashing. but now motherboard manufacturers have stuff like easy flash etc, which eliminates the need
I've got an IBM USB floppy drive for the same reason. I haven't taken it out of the case in months though. I haven't flashed a mobo or video card BIOS in quite a while.
