Floppy Drive....Necessary?

[Guttboy]

Hi Everyone,

I have a noobish question so dont bite...LOL.....What is the use for a 3.5" drive nowadays? I have literally never used my 3.5" drive whatsoever. My reason for asking is that I am going to help a buddy build a computer and I will be building one myself here in a few months or so....

Back to my question....what is the need for a 3.5"?

Thanks...been learning alot here!!!


Regards!:)

[Taz100420]

used mine to flash my 9550->9600

[Guttboy]

Ok but can you do that with a CD though?

[hat]

you should be able to..

[PVTCaboose1337]

100% yes. They cost nothing but are good to have for drivers.

[Taz100420]

100% yes. They cost nothing but are good to have for drivers.

ahhh I forgot about drvers, I had to use one for my gamepad, kinda old tho but works!

[Gwargor]

The only thing people use Floppy drives for are flashing there MB BIOS. But you can do that with a CD, USB Flash Drive or even with your Hard Drive. There is no reason I can think of you should buy a Floppy.

[pt]

no point in having a floopy but the 3.5 is usefull for a fan controller or a card reader ;)

[Guttboy]

I was thinking the same thing...realistically PVT it takes up a power cord, space and wouldnt be used I suppose, however, using the space for a fan controller or card reader is something that would be useful in my buddy and my case

[SlipSlice]

I don't have one on my computer, and really I never use it...so my answer would be no, most people don't use them anymore..mostly compact disk's anymore.

slip

[PVTCaboose1337]

I was thinking the same thing...realistically PVT it takes up a power cord, space and wouldnt be used I suppose, however, using the space for a fan controller or card reader is something that would be useful in my buddy and my case

I acually still use my for some old drivers. I have one sitting around for those times when I need it, I stays backwords on my computer.

[Guttboy]

I suppose I could just keep the ones from my old computers! But I would not really want to put it in the new computer. I could always put it in if I really needed it later on I suppose...but a card reader on the front would be a really cool thought though!

[Thermopylae_480]

I have one, I rarely use it, but it's there if I need it. I wouldn't go buy one though, I just had that one laying around.

[wazzledoozle]

You can use a USB thumb drive as a boot device for bios flashing. If you have drivers that came on a floppy, just download a newer release from the internet and burn to cd.

I have a mini cd-rw specifically for drivers, useful.

[xman2007]

wow you stole my thread idea lol i was thinking about doing a poll about this today, on the topic i think there still handy to have atm for stat drivers, some dos utils etc but dont own one myself and get frustrated when i have to put a 700k sata driver onto a cd :shadedshu

[Guttboy]

Well then I guess I was thinking something that others are!

I still have yet to find a compelling reason to use one....Like it has been stated before you can use a CD or USB thumbdrive for things like that I assume....anyone find a reason why I cannot do this? My laptop came w/o floppy....I just think the way of the floppy is dead.

[InfDamarvel]

I kept my floppy, had to use the floppy disk to install sata drivers for XP. Im guessing when vista comes around itll be a lot more useless and we can all start crunkin our pcs out with sd card slot drives.

[JC316]

I survive without a floppy, I was using a jumpstick for flashes until I reversed the pins and melted it :(. It was taking up room and colecting dust, so I threw my old one out.

[tkpenalty]

lol... I have 5 of them laying around. When I need to flash I just reconnect the floppy cable and power cable. Then after flashing I remove the cables and toss it literally back in my cupboard.

It would be nice if they had an update for the floppy medium though. I don't like CDs because they are huge and floppy disks are small and light.

[rizzo]

I've used mine a lot for flashing. I think i had to do a mb flash to enable the use of a thumbdrive to boot. I'd hang on to it, you could install it if need be.

[Frogger]

1ST just keep the old one ...you never know
2nd most new floppies are 15-25$$ not worth it
if you are going to get card reader then the slot is open
if you really neeed one you ca get a combo.. card reader/floppy for like 30$$

[KJ]

Floppys are outdated, use CD/DVD instead

[Wile E]

I kept my floppy, had to use the floppy disk to install sata drivers for XP. Im guessing when vista comes around itll be a lot more useless and we can all start crunkin our pcs out with sd card slot drives.Just integrate your RAID drivers into a custom install cd using nLite. That's what I did. I have a floppy drive, but it's not installed in my computer. I can't even recall the last time I had to use one. I use a bootable usb key instead, or a bootable cd, if necessary. So, no, I believe a floppy isn't necessary, or particularly useful, for that matter.

[Grings]

theyre handy to have, but i wouldnt bother putting one in the pc, i just hook it up when i need it like tk

[Sasqui]

Hi Everyone,

I have a noobish question so dont bite...LOL.....What is the use for a 3.5" drive nowadays? I have literally never used my 3.5" drive whatsoever. My reason for asking is that I am going to help a buddy build a computer and I will be building one myself here in a few months or so....

Back to my question....what is the need for a 3.5"?

Thanks...been learning alot here!!!
Regards!:)

Got a completely different take here... I tried flashing my old radeon 9500 using a CD and USB drive, ATIFlash would start, but lock up. With a floppy, it worked like a charm. I have read even new motherboard reviews on newegg where people mention they cannot flash by any other means.

You think they'd have all that worked out in the BIOS by now, but they don't.

Bottom line - keep a floppy handy... even if just collecting dust somewhere. I always keep one installed in my rig.