Whos using all the floppy disks ???

opinion guy

Remember floppy disks ???? We'll I do. Hafeful f**king slow, noisy, useless things that just about held a word document if you put a picture in it and shoudl have been exterminated about 15 years ago. I remember having to run programs to split files across disks and recombine them again after !!!! Imagine!!!!! However, I personally can't remember the last time I saw one, much less used one.

But apparently they are still made and about a million a month are sold in the uk, but nobody seems quite sure who is using them:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm

But these relatively niche uses couldn't possibly account for the number of floppies - something like a million a month - that are being consumed in the UK alone.
The answer may simply be that there are a great many old computers that read only floppies, and a great many computer users that have no need for the storage media that have supplanted them in other quarters.
Rather than there being one industry propped up on the values of a floppy, or a horde of enthusiasts buying up the world's supply, they may simply be as much as many computer users need.

So, any boardsies out there still using floppies? Are you a niche user, or are you just a masochist storing your photo collection one picture per floppy ?? Do they have some clandestine use ?

petes

They are great for shaky tables!.

I haven't use one of them in years.

Max Power1

opinion guy wrote: »

Remember floppy disks ???? We'll I do. Hafeful f**king slow, noisy, useless things that just about held a word document if you put a picture in it and shoudl have been exterminated about 15 years ago. I remember having to run programs to split files across disks and recombine them again after !!!! Imagine!!!!! However, I personally can't remember the last time I saw one, much less used one.

But apparently they are still made and about a million a month are sold in the uk, but nobody seems quite sure who is using them:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm






So, any boardsies out there still using floppies? Are you a niche user, or are you just a masochist storing your photo collection one picture per floppy ?? Do they have some clandestine use ?

what does your ma have in common with a pc from the mid 90's?

they both accept a 3.25 inch floppy

Lurching

That must be wrong. Surely!
A CD im sure is cheaper than 1 floppy and its nigh on 400 times bigger.

M5

opinion guy wrote: »

Remember floppy disks ???? We'll I do. Hafeful f**king slow, noisy, useless things that just about held a word document if you put a picture in it and shoudl have been exterminated about 15 years ago. I remember having to run programs to split files across disks and recombine them again after !!!! Imagine!!!!! However, I personally can't remember the last time I saw one, much less used one.

But apparently they are still made and about a million a month are sold in the uk, but nobody seems quite sure who is using them:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm





So, any boardsies out there still using floppies? Are you a niche user, or are you just a masochist storing your photo collection one picture per floppy ?? Do they have some clandestine use ?

Industry is full of the hateful fcukers

Wazdakka

Up untill this year some of the licences for programming software we use were on floppy's.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Wow... Floppy disks, now there's a blast from the past...

The Mad Hatter

I remember when a friend got his MacBook Pro and it had no floppy drive, about five years ago, a lot of mutual friends said its lack of a floppy drive was a major disadvantage. "You need small storage" is probably the phrase I best remember.

Well, it's five years on, and he's still using the same MacBook Pro. I think most of my other friends have been through a couple of laptops in the time.

And now, well, the iPad doesn't have a USB port.

azezil

We still use them while reprogramming system boards at work.

El Weirdo

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

And now, well, the iPad doesn't have a USB port.

USB is used for a lot more than storage though.

ejmaztec

The 5.25 inch floppies were a lot floppier than these new-fangled floppies, that were never particularly floppy.

Cookie_Monster

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

And now, well, the iPad doesn't have a USB port.

its lack of a usb port is a major disadvantage. "You need small storage"

The Mad Hatter

El Weirdo wrote: »

USB is used for a lot more than storage though.

...I know. That wasn't my point, though.

Cookie_Monster gets it, I hope.

AnonoBoy

ejmaztec wrote: »

The 5.25 inch floppies were a lot floppier than these new-fangled floppies, that were never particularly floppy.

Five and a quarter inch floppies made a nice Rolf Harris-esque swishy noise when you waggled them back and forth.











(In the billabong, under the shade of a Coolibah tree)

super_furry

Zip Discs are where it's at! 100mb of raw power baby.

Wudyaquit

ejmaztec wrote: »

The 5.25 inch floppies were a lot floppier than these new-fangled floppies, that were never particularly floppy.

Touché. You've played floppy hardy before.

orourkeda

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Five and a quarter inch floppies made a nice Rolf Harris-esque swishy noise when you waggled them back and forth.










(In the billabong, under the shade of a Coolibah tree)

so do 5 and a quarter inch floppy di*cks

InkSlinger67

I'd say folk are burning them, I know I would! There's nothing like a cigarette lit with a piece of burning computer equipment

bonerm

ejmaztec wrote: »

The 5.25 inch floppies were a lot floppier than these new-fangled floppies, that were never particularly floppy.

Agreed. In fact I even knew one eejit who at the time called the 5.25s "floppy discs" and the 3.5s "hard disks" :rolleyes:

pickarooney

We still get clients sending in their data backed up on floppy disks regularly. About one a week at least, over half of which are screwed up or just plain empty.

bonzodog2

ejmaztec wrote: »

The 5.25 inch floppies were a lot floppier than these new-fangled floppies, that were never particularly floppy.

A friend of mine from South Africa used to refer to the 3.5" floppies as stiffies. I used to imagine him getting into trouble sometime by offering to give someone's wife a stiffy, but I didn't hear about it.

I'm suprised they even sell them these days (I beleive they still have them in Maplin)

o1s1n

I still use them for my Snes backup device.

http://www.playright.dk/screens/superwildcard_snes_01.jpg

Handy for backing up all those old cart saves before the batteries run out. Or for playing er...dubiously acquired roms.

consultech

Fiver says they're bein used to copy old games on Amiga etc.

brianwalshcork

pickarooney wrote: »

We still get clients sending in their data backed up on floppy disks regularly. About one a week at least, over half of which are screwed up or just plain empty.

I'd say there's a strong correlation between the people who still use floppies, and those who can't save files.

brianwalshcork

brianwalshcork wrote: »

I'd say there's a strong correlation between the people who still use floppies, and those who can't save files.

Bos to client on the phone "can you send me a copy of the data!"

/fax machine starts up and we recieve an image of a floppy disk! :rolleyes:

gbee

for security reasons today, seeing that no new PC comes with a floppy reader, they might be a neat choice. ?

Biggins

I still use them to help others gain their old systems back up and running long enought to extract/complete wipe vital data before dumping the aging machines finally.

consultech

I use them for storing 1080p Bluray rip MKV files.

phasers

WTF is a floppy disk?

DamoDLK

Jaysus I haven't had a floppy in years!

starbelgrade

DamoDLK wrote: »

Jaysus I haven't had a floppy in years!

You'd want to lay off the Viagra.

RolandIRL

super_furry wrote: »

Zip Discs are where it's at! 100mb of raw power baby.

thanks for that bit of nostalgia.
i know that i had to use zip disks for copying files over from my XP comp to my win98 comp. it took ages cos we could not find usb drivers for win98 anywhere.

eventually though, i did upgrade to XP. the only reason i stayed with 98 so long was a load of really old games wouldn't work on XP so we used to play them on 98.

i can't remember the last thing i've used a floppy. god it's been years. oh the nostalgia


speed kills...go slower on win95

Cuddlesworth

Banks. We are still being forced to use Floppy's because they won't upgrade their software. We actually have to go out and buy floppy drives because we haven't bought a machine in five years that comes with one.

Stinicker

consultech wrote: »

I use them for storing 1080p Bluray rip MKV files.

WinRar is great for splitting files isn't it?

Owen

Max Power1 wrote: »

what does your ma have in common with a pc from the mid 90's?

they both accept a 3.25 inch floppy

Want to be some weird PC, never heard of a 3 & 1/4 inch floppy disc!

Owen

Floppies are still very handy for doing BIOS updates.

Marty McFly

We use them in my job, its a printers.

no were not that far behind modern day , its a certain aspect have to use them to read profiles into the press.

CrazyRabbit

Schools still use them for storing students work.

My mum was using one during a childcare course to store some docs she was working on. I managed to convince her to use my old 1mb flash drive, but she complains that she keeps loosing it as it is too small.

Where I work, at one time we hot-desked (1500 employees, 3 shifts and 500 desks). So we used floppy disks to keep our bookmarks & Lotus Notes id files with us).

Oh, and I still use 5 1/4 inch disks for my Commodore 1541 floppy drive...an awesome 165kb of storage per disk.

4zn76tysfajdxp

I've seen several boxes of floppies in a press at work. Dunno who uses 'em though.

Duggy747

When I was working as the in-house techie about 2 years ago I had to use them a fair bit.

The problem was we only had 1 external floppy disk drive and that was always been used by another engineer on the road, was suprised to see how much we actually needed the damn thing!

I actually had to use one 2 weeks ago to get files off the oul' pair's destroyed PC (USB sockets were fried!)

Still, I don't miss the fùckers but it's handy having a spare one knocking about!

Agricola

Last time I used them was 1st year in college. (00/01) Handed up plenty of assignments on them! Then my clever mate showed me the magic that was ZipDisks! 250mb - ON ONE REMOVEABLE DISK :eek:

Christ though, going around with tonnes of floppies in my bag! That takes me back.

opinion guy

consultech wrote: »

Fiver says they're bein used to copy old games on Amiga etc.

Why bother when you can just download them and use an emulator on your pc or mac? Check out amiga forever - its freakin awesome!!!
http://www.amigaforever.com/

brianwalshcork wrote: »

I'd say there's a strong correlation between the people who still use floppies, and those who can't save files.

Lol - this sounds like a study someone should do!

phasers wrote: »

WTF is a floppy disk?

Hahahah. If I coudl thank a post twice !....

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Where I work, at one time we hot-desked (1500 employees, 3 shifts and 500 desks). So we used floppy disks to keep our bookmarks & Lotus Notes id files with us).

Jaysus Lotus Notes that takes me back and all!!

Dartz

I use them for drivers, because just about anything'll boot from a floppy still. It's slow, but it works.

Also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJykWOaXV-w

Menuet Operating System. Assembly language OS, comes in 32-bit and 64-bit floppy-disk images. Booted it in a IBM laptop PC that was built when the WTC was still standing. It runs like win.

Paparazzo

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

And now, well, the iPad doesn't have a USB port.

That's cos it's shíte

Dinkie

I use them for work... get through about 2 packs a month!!

Some instruments I work on are old enough to only have a floppy drive.

dotsman

whiteman19 wrote: »

thanks for that bit of nostalgia.
i know that i had to use zip disks for copying files over from my XP comp to my win98 comp. it took ages cos we could not find usb drivers for win98 anywhere.

eventually though, i did upgrade to XP. the only reason i stayed with 98 so long was a load of really old games wouldn't work on XP so we used to play them on 98.

You do know that there's probably not a single win98 game that doesn't work on XP?

P.S. When moving large amounts of data from one computer to another without a network connection, it's usually just easier to just slot the old hard drive into a spare bay on the new machine!

On floppies? Haven't used one in about 7-8 years.

bonerm

Just in case any of the floppy users are reading this thread....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

robtri

used to use them up to just over a year go in the old job, Revenue... yep the government required files to be sent to them by post on floppy....

it was laughable......

G_R

i can remember about 98/99 (there or there abouts) , my da bought a digital camera for work, only 1.2mp or something but cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Anyway he took some photos for work and could only get two of em on a floppy or something, so some one suggested putting the pics on this new thing called a CD. We were amazed with what it could hold, my da was talking about it for weeks lol.

Hands up who tried to store n00dy pictures on a floppy during the 90's..

I probably still have some 'Sunny' (Of WWF fame) pics floating about on floppy cause I was never arsed to actually look at them again! I thought I had a mission impossible style porn operation going on

DamoDLK

Paparazzo wrote: »

That's cos it's shíte

Have you used one? an Ipad that is.