Floppy drive still required?

B

bgoo1

New Member
I am going to purchase a new computer with Windows XP. I used to have a floppy drive in old computer (with window 98) and find it valuable when the system crashed and the CD drive is not operational. I can just insert my system disk in the floppy drive and reboot. I can even put the CD ROM driver in the system disk to make the computer reconize the CD drive.

For this new Xp OS, is it still valuable to keep the floppy drive or I can just get rid of it and use a single DVD drive. I just worry if my DVD drive open when the OS crashed

Thanks.
 
9 times out of ten, 98 times out of 100 you won't need it. But every now and again something comes up and you'll wish you had it. BIOS flashes come to mind.
 
i have a good reason to still use a floppy disk drive... i need the drivers for my SATA/RAID controller. until SATA or RAID is natively support by operating systems you'll need one. Also as mentioned previously its always better to use a floppy disk for bios flashing
 
SATA is the main reason why I still have a floppy drive. That and I have an old Partition Magic boot disk which I use from time to time. I suppose I could burn a copy of GParted on a CD but I like Partition Magic.
 
USB Floppy drive

Since I needed to load some older programs on floppys I bought a USB floppy drive and use it when needed.
 
Yup, USB floppy. Keep it in the attic lol.

Never had a computer with SATA, when I was still into desktops it was pretty expensive still and I never got it. With a laptop I don't plan on flashing my BIOS...ever (if I can). When I had a desktop I always used software to flash mine, kinda risky but it never failed. That was when Socket A was still the shit though lol.
 
SirKenin said:
9 times out of ten, 98 times out of 100 you won't need it. But every now and again something comes up and you'll wish you had it. BIOS flashes come to mind.
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Well, even BIOS flashing can be done through BIOS Update utilities in Windows now...

The Floppy Disk Drive is slowly disappearing...
 
I have a USB Floppy/Card reader I use every now and then for legacy stuff. My grandparents do a good bit with floppies still. However, I regret getting such a combo. It'll confuse most computers during POST... But it's nice to have one around. I say still get one, or at least keep an internal one and cable handy.
 
Recently i've been wanting one, as it's cheaper for moving really small files from my dads work to home, instead of burning CD's. I've been wanting to get an external floppy drive for some time now, but I've never gotten around to it. :P
 
if you are going to run raid then you will need one to install the drivers during windows install you might also need one to update bios if you ever need to they are really cheap i would put one in just incase
 
I will put floppies in my computer for as long as they are still in use, I mean its what like $10 for a floppy drive, and they last forever so you can always snatch one from an older comp. It can be a good thing to have though for certain things, memtest especially :P.
 
you should have floppies, last time i need to reinstall OS in an old laptop from my friend his laptop has no cd drive, no USB no NIC only floppy, since i have no floppies on my pc for a startup disk i turn him down.
 
bball4life said:
I will put floppies in my computer for as long as they are still in use, I mean its what like $10 for a floppy drive, and they last forever so you can always snatch one from an older comp. It can be a good thing to have though for certain things, memtest especially :P.
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i like watching that 24 on your avatar, is it season 4 already or 5?
 
I'll always have a floppy drive. There is no reason not to have one. It doesnt take up much space or get in the way. There are still occasions that I find it useful. I use it to boot to Ghost. I have problems with my current sytem running ghost from the Windows XP environment. This only became a problem when I configured my SATA drives in RAID 0.
 
you need to get a floppy drive. i know they're terribly expensive. but perhaps you can save up an extra month or so and get one. would be a good idea.
 
flinger said:
you need to get a floppy drive. i know they're terribly expensive. but perhaps you can save up an extra month or so and get one. would be a good idea.
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You can get floppy drives for $7!

Anyway, it is worth getting one for installing SATA drivers, as well as doing BIOS updates. I had to go searching for a floppy drive when I was flashing my video card BIOS.
 
Jet said:
Anyway, it is worth getting one for installing SATA drivers, as well as doing BIOS updates. I had to go searching for a floppy drive when I was flashing my video card BIOS.
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Thats one useful thing about them. However HP made a utility that can make your USB Flash Drive bootable, so you no longer need to use floppies to update your BIOS or install F6 drivers. You're motherboard just has to support booting from a USB drive (most new ones do).
 
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