Whos using all the floppy disks ???

opinion guy · 28-04-2010 01:04PM #1

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 · 28-04-2010 01:06PM

They are great for shaky tables!.

I haven't use one of them in years.

Max Power1 · 28-04-2010 01:06PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:06PM

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

M5 · 28-04-2010 01:07PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:07PM

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

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 28-04-2010 01:11PM

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

The Mad Hatter · 28-04-2010 01:15PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:17PM

We still use them while reprogramming system boards at work.

El Weirdo · 28-04-2010 01:17PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:17PM

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

Cookie_Monster · 28-04-2010 01:19PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:20PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:21PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:22PM

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

Wudyaquit · 28-04-2010 01:22PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:25PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:27PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:33PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:38PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:40PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:41PM

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 · 28-04-2010 01:46PM

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

brianwalshcork · 28-04-2010 01:49PM

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.

28-04-2010 02:08PM

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 · 28-04-2010 02:11PM

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

Biggins · 28-04-2010 02:12PM

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.