January monthly poll

[Moderator]

I'm dissappointed BC...you missed the obvious:

Restored an Acronis image to a HDD this week using a bootable floopy...

I do work for a charity which use laptops running Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP and Vista (I was offered a free Windows 3.1 machine - but declined).

The Windows 95 and 98 machines have problems loading USB drivers (or no USB port), so a floppy disk is the only option.

Back in school in 1978, I did start programming using coding sheets and "punch cards".  Floppy disks are bang up to date by comparison.

We use some antiquated equipment and software at work.  I needed to build another cash register for the gift shop, and the newest software that is compatible with our system is DOS 6.2.  We are (hopefully) going to upgrade this spring, so I won't be using them much longer.

For personal use, it has been about 2 years.

I'm dissappointed BC...you missed the obvious:

Restored an Acronis image to a HDD this week using a bootable floopy...

So I did. In my speed reading of posts I missed it.

Or maybe my mind automatically changed it to floppy? I dunno.


heh heh.



floopy.

[Moderator]

   

I used one last weekend to update my Dell's bios.  That was the first time in years.  I use USB sticks and CDs routinely.

I remember the old 5 1/4" ones. I remember how my first computer (a 286) would only take the 5 1/4". I thought the 3 1/2" ones were so cool. Much more durable and reliable than the 5 1/4" ones. I also remember having an argument with a girl in a computer class back in junior high who insisted 3 1/2" floppies were called "hard disks", because of the plastic casing and because they weren't 'floppy'. 

Everything of value I had on floppy I copied over to CDs, like Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, DOS 6.22, and some other old stuff. CD-Rs don't last forever either, so I also keep ISO backups of the CDs, should I ever need to remake one. As a tech, I've more than once had to pull out that disc to fix some old machine.

I always ask when building a system if they want or have the need for a 3 1/2" floppy drive. I'd say 75% of the time people don't want them, and of the other quarter that do, most probably don't use it. 

I'd say the invention of flash drives has really done floppy disks in. They're so cheap now, too. A lot of companies here give flash drives away with the company logo on it as a promotional item. I've got several 256MB ones from various places. I picked up a 2GB one for $3 at IT City (they're kinda like Circuit City in the US).

[Moderator]

I'm surprised there is such a lack of ZIP Disk users...

I know I didnt know they existed for a very long time, but, I actually recently (last year) tried one out on an old ZIP Disk USB device. Unfortunately, the drive is going out... so, I never really got to use the full potential.
We were going to use it for a driver storage medium, since the generic drivers were in Windows 2000... never got to that.

I'm surprised there is such a lack of ZIP Disk users...

I know I didnt know they existed for a very long time, but, I actually recently (last year) tried one out on an old ZIP Disk USB device. Unfortunately, the drive is going out... so, I never really got to use the full potential.
We were going to use it for a driver storage medium, since the generic drivers were in Windows 2000... never got to that.

I used to have a external Imation LS-120 Superdisk drive. I lost the power cord though, so I took the IDE drive out of it. 

[Moderator]

I still have a Zip drive...

i have been learning about and building desktop PCs and have found that you still need floppy boot discs to load an OS if you need a CD/ROM driver.

i have been learning about and building desktop PCs and have found that you still need floppy boot discs to load an OS if you need a CD/ROM driver.

el torito notwithstanding.

My home PC has a built-in Zip drive.  My office has an external zip drive.  I seldom use either.

like most others I now use flash drives for info.  Also have a huge WD backup drive for whole PC info.

[Moderator]

like most others I now use flash drives for info.  Also have a huge WD backup drive for whole PC info.

All hard drives fail...sooner or later.
Consider an imaging Program for your important data and burn it to CD/DVD's...