Farewell to the floppy disk

[Harrison]

Well lecturers are a strange breed unto themselves. Most probably haven't seen the light of day for many years and probably still view the floppy disk as modern and quite revolutionary compared to the tapes they used in their youth.

[J T]

I might urinate on a floppy disk tonight if I can find one.

I haven't used one for ages. For certain things I can see the appeal but they are a bit pony nowadays

[Submeg]

So true Harrison. Maybe I should take one in and burn it in front of them...

[TiredOfLife]

Hmm, can't remember the last time I copied anything onto a floppy.
Very rarely, I might load the odd thing from floppy.

[Stephen Coates]

Flash drives are certainly taking over as they do (as has been mentioned here before) have many advantages.

For alot of my needs though they arn't much good. For example, I can keep a disk which is relvent to a piece of work inside a plastic wallet so it is seperate from and won;t get lost amongst everything else.

They also fit nicely into the folder I take to school everyday, whereas a flash drive wouldn't. (The PCB might do, and the flash chip certainly would, but they tend to have a lot of packaging).

And for some tasks it really doesn;t make any difference which you use. Earlier I had to get a PCB layout from the fileserver in school so stuck a disk in, copied the file to it, gave it to the electronics technician (I think he likes RiscOS), he stuck it in his laptop and made the PCB for me. The file is only about 10k so for tasks like that, who cares whether it is a flash drive or a floppy? (As long as the floppy and drive work of course).

When it comes to portable storage, I much prefer to have a drive int he computer which I can stil a disk into, which is why I like Zip and Jaz as well, but unfortunately not many computers have those drives anymore.

[AlexJ]

And for some tasks it really doesn;t make any difference which you use. Earlier I had to get a PCB layout from the fileserver in school so stuck a disk in, copied the file to it, gave it to the electronics technician (I think he likes RiscOS), he stuck it in his laptop and made the PCB for me. The file is only about 10k so for tasks like that, who cares whether it is a flash drive or a floppy? (As long as the floppy and drive work of course).

Well I'd care as my laptop doesn't have a floppy disk. Nor does my desktop but I could add one to it if I desperately needed to read a floppy disk. Practically every PC manufactured in the last 9 years has a USB port, and Windows has had built in flash drive support for 7 years, so this is the most convenient way to transfer files without having to worry 'will the PC have a disk drive?'.

[Submeg]

I just bought a USB compatiable floppy drive. Just to keep those lecturers at bay

[J T]

My floppy drive /card reader combo has had maybe one floppy in it (ooh er missus).

The card reader ports in it get used a hell of a lot more, though.

I've nothing against disks, in fact in someways I like the tactile feel and the actual action of slotting it in to a tight fittting....... sorry, where was I?

Ah yes, floppies. Couldn't really give a monkey's either way.

[TiredOfLife]

@ Ste

Even 10k would be noticibly faster on a flash pen than a floppy.
Also a lot less likely to corrupt.
Wouldn't be without my flashpen.
Have a 2gig one which I always keep in my pocket.
Often comes in handy.