Death of the floppy.

[patio]

Full Story...

[BC_Programmer]

hasn't there been at least one article a year on this since about 1998?

[soybean]

Well, Sony is ending sales in Japan; the article does not say whether Sony is ending world-wide sales.  But, the floppy still seems alive in other markets.  Staples.com shows 4 brands on their website; they are: Staples, Sony, Maxell, and Imation.

[patio]

hasn't there been at least one article a year on this since about 1998?

Yes.


 

[rthompson80819]

I think it was the thumb drive, not the CD or DVD, that finally killed the floppy.  It was convenient to transfer files onto a floppy and stick it into a shirt or jacket pocket.  You can't do that with a CD or DVD.

[Mulreay]

You can't do that with a CD or DVD.

How big are your CD's? Or how small are your pockets? 

[rthompson80819]

My Cd's are 120mm, or 4.72440 inches, and my shirt pockets are smaller than that.

Rumor was that the 3 1/2" floppy size was arrived at by making sure it would fit into the average shirt pocket.

[Salmon Trout]

It was convenient to transfer files onto a floppy and stick it into a shirt or jacket pocket.  You can't do that with a CD or DVD.

You can with 8cm CDs that have been around for years and years.

[BC_Programmer]

You can with 8cm CDs that have been around for years and years.

And you can still put them in your floppy drive, too. 

[rthompson80819]

And you can still put them in your floppy drive, too. 

I guarantee somebody, somewhere has done just that, and had a lot of fun trying to get them out.

[Geek-9pm]

And you can still put them in your floppy drive, too. 

Hey kids, don't try this at home.
He was just joking!

[blackrainbow]

hmmm maybe it is the end of flop disks.. i have not seen on for a good few years i wonder what would kill off the pen drive hmmmmm only the future will tell

[sunnysky]

I have old floppies from around 1996-97, which can hold about 3 mb of files. I know I put some files on them, but I don't remember what...I'm really curious to see what's on them.  

[Mulreay]

I have old floppies from around 1996-97, which can hold about 3 mb of files. I know I put some files on them, but I don't remember what...I'm really curious to see what's on them.  

Not sure where you got 3mb of usable files on a floppy.. mine were generally 1.44mb I have a stack of them gaining dust.
But that's me. Maybe you mean 2.88mb.

[2x3i5x]

     or     

[BC_Programmer]

the 5- 1/4" came in 160K, 180K, 360K and 1.2MB (I think I missed one (720K?)); 3-1/2 came in 720K, 1.44MB, and later on, 2.88MB. the 2.88MB drives are rare because when they were released the floppy drive was already falling out of favour as the main way of saving files and backups, additionally, the fact that the drive used perpendicular recording made the drives themselves expensive enough to not be a commodity, which means they were included only on a few machines.

[rthompson80819]

When I first read this article, I was surprised how many formats there were for  floppy drives.  I've used a number of different formats, but there were a lot I'd never heard of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

[sunnysky]

Not sure where you got 3mb of usable files on a floppy.. mine were generally 1.44mb I have a stack of them gaining dust.
But that's me. Maybe you mean 2.88mb.

Actually, I don't actually remember exactly how many mb's were on my floppies, lol. I guess it was 1.44 then, since someone said 2.88 is rare. I can check, but I gotta dig through a bunch of old stuff.

[Computer_Commando]

The Zip drive killed this one:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floptical
It wasn't any better, just greater capacity.