Is anyone using a floppy drive in new builds?

"Mike Easter" <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote in message
news:y7idncuu-sB3hNnVnZ2dnUVZ_u6dnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Larc wrote:
>> "Mike Easter"
>
>>> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
>>
>> On average, I haven't found floppy drives to be very reliable either.
>> I've probably bought more of them over the years than any other type of
>> computer hardware, unless RAM sticks count.
>
> My remarks were about the media, not the drives. I've never bought a fdd
> (that I recall) because I've always had a 'plethora' of them lying around
> which came with something which got salvaged.
>
> It would seem that the first computer that I built I would have had to
> 'buy' a fdd, but I don't remember it that way. In all of the things I can
> remember mailordering to assemble, I don't remember any fdd/s in the
> lineup.
>
> Maybe spare fdd/s are like dustbunnies and such, they are just always
> 'around' and no one knows where they came from. Like Leeuwenhoek's wee
> beasties or something, spontaneously generated.
>
> --
> Mike Easter
>

I'm not telling everybody to go out and buy floppy drives/disks 'cause
they're the best thing since sliced bread, but...I have *some* Sony floppies
from 1997 that I still use, because I have apps/hardware that still require
them. I've probably re-formatted them a couple of dozen times (although I've
tossed a few out over the years).

The big headache I had with these things came when I tried to read some
Win98SE-written disks with a new install of WinXPPRO circa 2001. THAT didn't
work out...for some reason.

"Mike Easter" <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote in message news:0aednfaaL_Cdm9nVnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@earthlink.co m...
> TVeblen wrote:
> > Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
> > floppy?
>
> It depends on whether or not you have other machines around which -1- need
> floppy support and -2- provide floppy support.
>
> If you have machines which you are supporting which don't have USB or
> don't boot from USB or don't boot from CD (or zip for that matter) which
> are likely to need a floppy for something, then you need something you can
> write a floppy with to use on the machine or situation which might need
> it.
>
> If you have some other machine/s which can provide the floppy for the
> machine which needs it because of retro- capabilities, then the newest
> build might not need a floppy.
>
> My most recent build doesn't have a fdd (installed), but I have boxes that
> need floppy support and I have other boxes which have fdd for support. If
> the fdd support boxes go away, I'll be salvaging a fdd in case I need to
> install it in a box which doesn't have one.
>
> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.

Sometimes tiny files are most important. Doc files, address books
etc. I keep a floppy drive on my systems for the same reason I still
use Windows 2000 and FAT32 disk partitions on them: the shortest
distance between me and those files, the better. I don't want OS/
partition types/hardware limitations getting in the way.

I can still boot off a DOS6.22 floppy and have complete control
over everything, including forcibly nuking drivers and other files
from my OS when I have to/need to/want to.

nospam wrote:
> "Mike Easter"
>> TVeblen wrote:
>>> Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build
>>> using a floppy?
>>
>> It depends on whether or not you have other machines around which -1-
>> need floppy support and -2- provide floppy support.

>> My most recent build doesn't have a fdd (installed), but I have boxes
>> that need floppy support and I have other boxes which have fdd for
>> support.

>> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
>
> Sometimes tiny files are most important. Doc files, address books
> etc. I keep a floppy drive on my systems for the same reason I still
> use Windows 2000 and FAT32 disk partitions on them: the shortest
> distance between me and those files, the better. I don't want OS/
> partition types/hardware limitations getting in the way.
>
> I can still boot off a DOS6.22 floppy and have complete control
> over everything, including forcibly nuking drivers and other files
> from my OS when I have to/need to/want to.

I don't have any disagreement with your perspective and I don't want to be
interpreted as being antifloppy just because the last box I built doesn't
have one (yet).

I prefer to build my own stuff, but that being said, of the last 3 (new)
boxes I bought (because it was such a good/cheap deal) which were
preassembled (before the last one I built as above), 2 of them came with
fdd and 1 did not.

--
Mike Easter

In message <MLidnXmWI9exW97VnZ2dnUVZ_vGdnZ2d@comcast.com> "TVeblen"
<killtherobots@hal.net> wrote:

>Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
>floppy?

The 3.5" card reader I'm currently using happens to have a floppy
included, so I do bother to hook up the floppy cable.

Beyond that, and the XP/2003 issue of drive controller drivers, no.
Luckily, Vista/2008 don't require a floppy.

>I recall when I built my P4C800-ED machine with the hard drives on the
>Promise RAID controller, the ONLY way to install XP was to write the driver
>files to a floppy and hit F6 during the install to load them. Are things
>different now?

The floppy isn't the only option, you can also slipstream drivers into
the installation CD. More work in most cases, although less work if you
have a physically inaccessible server.

TVeblen wrote:
> "Mike Easter"

>> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
>>
> I'm buried in floppy disks. All my old progs were on floppies (Windows
> 1.0 -
> 3.0 Word 1.0 Excel 3.0 etc etc.) And for some reason that I cannot
> remember I had W95 on floppies (26 of em) to load on someone's
> computer. Could not boot from CD? Who can remember ancient history?

If you want to save all of those floppy images, you should do so on some
other kind of medium than floppy. If you have a reliable storage (nothing
is perfect, but some things last better than others) then you can recreate
the floppies more accurately than they will stay/maintain in their floppy
medium.

--
Mike Easter

"TVeblen" <killtherobots@hal.net> wrote in message news:9_adnbVHjvBeDNnVnZ2dnUVZ_h3inZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>
> "Mike Easter" <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote in message
> news:0aednfaaL_Cdm9nVnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@earthlink.co m...
> > TVeblen wrote:
> >> Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
> >> floppy?
> >
> > It depends on whether or not you have other machines around which -1- need
> > floppy support and -2- provide floppy support.
> >
> > If you have machines which you are supporting which don't have USB or
> > don't boot from USB or don't boot from CD (or zip for that matter) which
> > are likely to need a floppy for something, then you need something you can
> > write a floppy with to use on the machine or situation which might need
> > it.
> >
> > If you have some other machine/s which can provide the floppy for the
> > machine which needs it because of retro- capabilities, then the newest
> > build might not need a floppy.
> >
> > My most recent build doesn't have a fdd (installed), but I have boxes that
> > need floppy support and I have other boxes which have fdd for support. If
> > the fdd support boxes go away, I'll be salvaging a fdd in case I need to
> > install it in a box which doesn't have one.
> >
> > Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
> >
> I'm buried in floppy disks. All my old progs were on floppies (Windows 1.0 -
> 3.0 Word 1.0 Excel 3.0 etc etc.) And for some reason that I cannot remember
> I had W95 on floppies (26 of em) to load on someone's computer. Could not
> boot from CD? Who can remember ancient history?

I still use all kinds of floppy-based software: dBase IV, Lotus 123
v2.2 for spreadsheets etc. Few people probably even remember
"Don't copy that floppy!" :-)

"nospam" <nospam@comcast.invalid.net> wrote in message
news:6-qdnb9i6PwbvNnVnZ2dnUVZ_tDinZ2d@comcast.com...
> "Mike Easter" <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote in message
> news:0aednfaaL_Cdm9nVnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@earthlink.co m...
>> TVeblen wrote:
>> > Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using
>> > a
>> > floppy?
>>
>> It depends on whether or not you have other machines around which -1-
>> need
>> floppy support and -2- provide floppy support.
>>
>> If you have machines which you are supporting which don't have USB or
>> don't boot from USB or don't boot from CD (or zip for that matter) which
>> are likely to need a floppy for something, then you need something you
>> can
>> write a floppy with to use on the machine or situation which might need
>> it.
>>
>> If you have some other machine/s which can provide the floppy for the
>> machine which needs it because of retro- capabilities, then the newest
>> build might not need a floppy.
>>
>> My most recent build doesn't have a fdd (installed), but I have boxes
>> that
>> need floppy support and I have other boxes which have fdd for support.
>> If
>> the fdd support boxes go away, I'll be salvaging a fdd in case I need to
>> install it in a box which doesn't have one.
>>
>> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
>
> Sometimes tiny files are most important. Doc files, address books
> etc. I keep a floppy drive on my systems for the same reason I still
> use Windows 2000 and FAT32 disk partitions on them: the shortest
> distance between me and those files, the better. I don't want OS/
> partition types/hardware limitations getting in the way.
>
> I can still boot off a DOS6.22 floppy and have complete control
> over everything, including forcibly nuking drivers and other files
> from my OS when I have to/need to/want to.
>
Yeah. I do that too. But I just use an old W98 Boot Disk. It's got all the
necessary commands I need. Takes out XP files- no prob!

"Mike Easter" <MikeE@ster.invalid> wrote in message
news:0aednfaaL_Cdm9nVnZ2dnUVZ_vudnZ2d@earthlink.co m...
> TVeblen wrote:
>> Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
>> floppy?
>
> It depends on whether or not you have other machines around which -1- need
> floppy support and -2- provide floppy support.
>
> If you have machines which you are supporting which don't have USB or
> don't boot from USB or don't boot from CD (or zip for that matter) which
> are likely to need a floppy for something, then you need something you can
> write a floppy with to use on the machine or situation which might need
> it.
>
> If you have some other machine/s which can provide the floppy for the
> machine which needs it because of retro- capabilities, then the newest
> build might not need a floppy.
>
> My most recent build doesn't have a fdd (installed), but I have boxes that
> need floppy support and I have other boxes which have fdd for support. If
> the fdd support boxes go away, I'll be salvaging a fdd in case I need to
> install it in a box which doesn't have one.
>
> Floppy media is very unreliable. And tiny capacity of course.
>
I'm buried in floppy disks. All my old progs were on floppies (Windows 1.0 -
3.0 Word 1.0 Excel 3.0 etc etc.) And for some reason that I cannot remember
I had W95 on floppies (26 of em) to load on someone's computer. Could not
boot from CD? Who can remember ancient history?

"TVeblen" <killtherobots@hal.net> wrote in message
news:MLidnXmWI9exW97VnZ2dnUVZ_vGdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
> floppy?
> I recall when I built my P4C800-ED machine with the hard drives on the
> Promise RAID controller, the ONLY way to install XP was to write the
> driver files to a floppy and hit F6 during the install to load them. Are
> things different now?
> (PS- I've got a box full of floppy drives, so the $15 is not an issue).
>

for the cost I always add one...........

TVeblen wrote:
> Putting aside personal preferences, is there any reason to build using a
> floppy?
> I recall when I built my P4C800-ED machine with the hard drives on the
> Promise RAID controller, the ONLY way to install XP was to write the driver
> files to a floppy and hit F6 during the install to load them. Are things
> different now?
> (PS- I've got a box full of floppy drives, so the $15 is not an issue).
>
>
I asked the same question about 6-8 weeks ago and decided to purchase a
USB drive (eBay). It worked fine, but if you choose that method, there
were only 3-4 models that my Intel mb would recognize, easily
researchable on the Intel website.

KK