Oh Floppy disks

I've had the odd ZIP disk, but I've not had a floppy disk since about '96 maybe '97 when email really killed them off.

Your client's not a retirement home or anything is it???

haven't used one since around '99 i'd say.

i feel bad for you.

7on said:

We regularly use Zip Disks

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I just got rid of a couple of hundred of them earlier this year... I don't think I've used them since 2001, each and everyone was like a timecapsule.

We get the occasional query about bringing down a floppy, but since it's an all-Mac office, we have no way to read them. Shame, too.

tobefirst said:

We get the occasional query about bringing down a floppy, but since it's an all-Mac office, we have no way to read them. Shame, too.

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there are still USB floppy drives out there if its needed. but i'd think they're rather hard to find these days.

PlaceofDis said:

there are still USB floppy drives out there if its needed. but i'd think they're rather hard to find these days.

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I'd rather not find them, if you know what I mean.

I still have a bunch of brand new floppy discs lying around somewhere. I'll just hold onto them for a couple more decades until they're worth MILLIONS...

PC users will never give up their floppies, it's like some unspoken code of honor or something. I still get the things from customers at my work too. I get more floppies than Zip disks these days. Floppies and those god-awful square business card CDs should all be burned in a mass public bonfire. Of course that could just cause mass rioting across the country from all the Windows 98 diehard users.

You can buy used/discontinued USB Imation SuperDisk drives for a couple of bucks each all day long on eBay. They read floppies and the SuperDisk (120 Mb) format, if you can find them.

LOL, haven't used those in 10 years. My clients are more likely to send harddrives than a floppy.

Ugh the school I left last year pretty much depended on them. We were expected to save our data on them, rather than the 4 or so GB hard drives on the 100Mhz 128MB RAM Win 95 Seanix boxes. Eew.

My school currently has a "no flash drive" rule. They worry about getting malware on the ALL windows 98/XP network. I believe they will be permitted this year, though. I don't understand how students can use CDs/floppys but not flash drives. Either way, the cd/floppy/flash drive has to be scanned first by the "tech" guy who teaches keyboarding that I probably no more than.

Edit: After re-reading the thread, im not sure how well my post fits in. Sorry, its late.

Where I work we've just sent out 100 floppy disks with stat data on. But then I do work for a "behind the times" employer!

You can make it work though right? Thats the real ?

IJ Reilly said:

You can buy used/discontinued USB Imation SuperDisk drives for a couple of bucks each all day long on eBay. They read floppies and the SuperDisk (120 Mb) format, if you can find them.

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They're bloody unreliable though. There were several of them in the possession of members of my family; none would write or read reliably from the 120MB iMation disks. Not a reliable format at all, from my experience. Bring back Syquest cartridges. They were the business.

Dunepilot said:

Bring back Syquest cartridges. They were the business.

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Word. I have files that have followed me along this path over many years:

5.25" floppy disk -> 3.5" floppy disk -> SyQuest 200 cartridge/10mb -> SyQuest 400 cartridge/44MB ->SyQuest 800 cartridge/88MB -> 100 MB Zip Disk -> 1 GB Jaz Disk -> 650 MB CD-ROM -> 4.7 GB DVD-R. All files are also live on multiple external hard drives.

Out of all of those, other than CD/DVD I think that the SyQuest was the most durable/stable media. I could throw them in my backpack, bang 'em around and they would still faithfully read/write.

That said, I haven't received a floppy, Zip, or Jaz from a client in about 4-5 years. It's all FTP, CD or DVD these days.

ATD said:

My clients are more likely to send harddrives than a floppy.

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hahahahahaha that's exactly what they send me, though unfortunately they always want them back... unlike ZIP's etc etc. that I always used to keep.

Dunepilot said:

They're bloody unreliable though. There were several of them in the possession of members of my family; none would write or read reliably from the 120MB iMation disks. Not a reliable format at all, from my experience.

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I never used mine much, but never had a problem with them either. Lucky, maybe.

iGav said:

hahahahahaha that's exactly what they send me, though unfortunately they always want them back... unlike ZIP's etc etc. that I always used to keep.

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So you are the guy that's got all my Zips.

BTW, what is everyone using for backup? I was using DVDs but the amount of content on my drives has exploded over the last few years. I'm running up about a TB a year, so until the BluRays come out, I'm buying hard drives. I was using tape drives (Dat) in the past but I don't like them at all.

ATD said:

So you are the guy that's got all my Zips.

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Nah... I threw them out earlier this year.