Floppy Disc Discontinued

The Chronicler · **on:** April 27, 2010, 09:45:29 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20100426/tc_zd/250362

According to this article I just read, production of 3.5-inch floppy disks had just ended. I honestly didn't know people still made these things, and I think it's already obvious that nearly everyone has moved on to better technology for storing information.

I honestly don't remember the last time I've ever used floppy discs. I took a quick look around my house and found only one (and it's covered in dust), so I can definitely say that I don't use them anymore. Does anybody here still use floppy discs?

Waluigifan · **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2010, 10:04:55 AM

I used floppy discs when I was a little child, when I started to do things on the computer (5-7 years ago). They are under my desk, and a few data files are stored there, but I don't use them anymore.

2 or 3 years ago I tried to recover most files from the floppy discs, because there have been errors while saving files on them (and I also wanted to recover files from formatted floppy discs). I almost tried everything to recover these files, because I wanted the good old times back, but I (mostly) failed, the data is damaged and they can't be used anymore.

Mumbling · **Reply #2 on:** April 27, 2010, 12:21:44 PM

I used them when I was younger all the time. It was my thing which I used instead of a USB flashdrive. However I stopped using them when I got my first (128mb) flashdrive, so I think I stopped using them at age 12?

We still have them at home, but no computer can read them anymore. They are basically just there now

:

Kor · **Reply #3 on:** April 27, 2010, 12:33:28 PM

I didn't know they still made those. My current pc doesn't even have a floppy drive. I use flash cards instead for that sort of thing.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #4 on:** April 27, 2010, 04:07:13 PM

I used a floppy just yesterday.

They're great for older machines because they recognize without fail even when Windows won't boot. On most machines newer than 2001 CD's will do the same, but there are a lot of repair programs I still use that are small enough to fit on a floppy. Why waste a CD? Besides, CD's suck. They get scratched and just aren't practical anymore. Yesterday I used a floppy on a 486DX machine (66mhz) in order to format the hard drive. It can't boot from a CD and there was some sort of serious fault that MS supposedly fixed a long time ago but that poor machine never got the patch.

Because of this, I couldn't even use a Windows 95 boot disk. I used a small program to wipe out the drive, then installed Windows 95 on the machine.

crazedwriter · **Reply #5 on:** April 27, 2010, 05:15:20 PM

My Dell has an A drive but I seldom use despite having scores of 3.5 floppy disks loaded with forgotten data. Would you believe I have a box of the really old 5.25 floppy disks stashed away somewhere in my basement?

All I can say thank God for flash drives and CDs.

jedi472 · **Reply #6 on:** April 27, 2010, 06:01:44 PM

Heh, I used to have Tie Fighter on 40 floppy discs...good times!

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #7 on:** April 27, 2010, 06:06:02 PM

Yeah, learned about this from the Freefall forum. I was actually more surprised that they still produced floppies; I haven't used one for years, and I don't believe I have a single one in my possession today.

MrDrake · **Reply #8 on:** April 27, 2010, 09:09:35 PM

I still use floppy disks at my course, since when assignments get sent away, they are sometimes accompanied by a floppy disk with work on there.

But really, I don't mind them, I mean, they're not that big....one assignment I had....the file couldn't fit onto the floppy disk in the end

bigger than the 1.3MB limit or whatever the limit is on it

Noname · **Reply #9 on:** April 27, 2010, 09:14:29 PM

I'm amazed that these were even still being made or used. Perhaps in third world countries, but not here. The last computer of mine that I remember having a floppy disk drive was an old Acer computer made in the 1990s, and even then, the format was getting old. I had thought floppies to be obsolete by the year 2000. Guess someone was still using them. Not anymore.

Serris · **Reply #10 on:** April 28, 2010, 12:59:20 AM

I still have some observatory pictures that date from ~2003 on a floppy.

Not to mention, we have hundreds of floppy discs sitting in our house.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #11 on:** April 28, 2010, 01:15:06 AM

When I moved to Minnesota about 2 years ago, I left behind nearly 2,000 blank floppy disks and at least 500 programs on floppies. Since I've come here, I've collected more. At present, I have about 100 blank floppies and about 20 different programs on floppies. Wolfenstein 3D, the Microsoft Best of Entertainment Pack, Load Runner, WipeDrive, and a host of technician programs. As a Computer Repair Technician and an overall computer enthusiast, I'll probably still have and use floppies 10 - 20 years from now.

landbeforetimelover · **Reply #12 on:** July 05, 2010, 07:13:58 AM

A client brought in a newer HP computer where a BIOS update failed. I planned to just boot it up with a CD and do a new BIOS update in Mini Windows XP. Unfortunately the update failed at just the right time so that it didn't even have the info to recognize a keyboard anymore! I couldn't even boot Mini Windows XP. If the computer had had a floppy drive it would have been a simple matter to fix but it didn't so I had to use a serial floppy drive (serial precedes USB) because the USB ports didn't work either. So I used the floppy drive to load a disk with supplemental drivers for the keyboard and I was able to restore the BIOS. Had floppies no longer existed, the computer would have had to been junked as the BIOS wasn't removable in this particular model.