Whos using all the floppy disks ???

RolandIRL · 28-04-2010 03:20PM

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 · 28-04-2010 03:22PM

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 · 28-04-2010 03:29PM

consultech wrote: »

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

WinRar is great for splitting files isn't it?

Owen · 28-04-2010 03:32PM

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 · 28-04-2010 03:33PM

Floppies are still very handy for doing BIOS updates.

Marty McFly · 28-04-2010 03:34PM

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 · 28-04-2010 07:24PM

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 · 28-04-2010 07:30PM

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

Duggy747 · 28-04-2010 07:33PM

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 · 28-04-2010 07:35PM

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 · 28-04-2010 08:12PM

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 · 28-04-2010 08:20PM

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 · 28-04-2010 08:29PM

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

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

That's cos it's shíte

Dinkie · 28-04-2010 08:46PM

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 · 28-04-2010 09:06PM

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 · 28-04-2010 09:09PM

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

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

robtri · 28-04-2010 09:37PM

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 · 28-04-2010 09:45PM

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.

28-04-2010 10:28PM

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 · 28-04-2010 10:35PM

Paparazzo wrote: »

That's cos it's shíte

Have you used one? an Ipad that is.

Teddy Daniels · 28-04-2010 11:09PM

I rember switching to the flopy from c60 and c90 cassettes. I hated that noise and thought it was gone till about 94 when I came back in the form of dial up noise.

Howard the Duck · 28-04-2010 11:54PM

i still have some day glow green ones somewhere that say something like "ms dos bootdisk" on them but they actually contain porn. I might boot up my old pc and take advantage of myself like it's the 90's again

Capt'n Midnight · 29-04-2010 12:49AM

ejmaztec wrote: »

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

8" FTW

used to do the old punch a hole in a 720KB trick so it could read 1.44MB :pac:

ah the old BBC floppies, 160KB on a disk and you could turn the disk upside down and get another 160KB on the other side :eek:

after having cassette recorders it was amazing

CrazyRabbit · 29-04-2010 01:23AM

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).

opinion guy wrote: »

Jaysus Lotus Notes that takes me back and all!!

Lotus Notes isn't that old. They only released v8.5 a few months ago! Though, it still has the same bugs from around the time Floppy Disks where still in use!

opinion guy · 29-04-2010 02:49AM

Teddy Daniels wrote: »

I rember switching to the flopy from c60 and c90 cassettes. I hated that noise and thought it was gone till about 94 when I came back in the form of dial up noise.

I liked that noise! Plus there was invade-a-load. Sometimes better than the game itself :P

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

8" FTW

used to do the old punch a hole in a 720KB trick so it could read 1.44MB :pac:

yeah what the hell is that about. why make them like that ?

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Lotus Notes isn't that old. They only released v8.5 a few months ago! Though, it still has the same bugs from around the time Floppy Disks where still in use!

o sorry just assumed it was dead. i used to like it. Far better email client then MSoutlook for example

Ruu_Old · 29-04-2010 03:17AM

It was me, I upgraded from the 5.25 disk, in the fast lane now! *holds on*

29-04-2010 04:54AM

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

8" FTW

used to do the old punch a hole in a 720KB trick so it could read 1.44MB :pac:

after having cassette recorders it was amazing

opinion guy wrote: »

yeah what the hell is that about. why make them like that ?

There's many a time when I needed about 1Mb of disk and could only find a 720K one, that trick only seemed to work on the better quality ones.

Some of the cheap ones ended up with more bad sectors than "gained" space.

m@cc@ · 29-04-2010 05:20AM

What's even stranger is that the humble floppy disk is still used as a icon for saving files in Windows to this very day.

29-04-2010 07:12AM

m@cc@ wrote: »

What's even stranger is that the humble floppy disk is still used as a icon for saving files in Windows to this very day.

Probably waiting for someone to cone up with a better one.

syklops · 29-04-2010 07:16AM

gbee wrote: »

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

I can just imagine a crack tiger team breaking into a secure organisation. All they need to do is crack the security system, pick the lock to the vault, open the safe and find the storage discs to copy, and leave untraced. And they get in and instead of a harddrive, or CDs, the data they need is on a bunch of floppies, and they have to ring the boss to say "We have a problem, can you get us 2 floppy drives here ASAP", "To which he says "I'll need another team to break into the Natural History museum".

Whos using all the floppy disks ???

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