Floppy drives....

[Skygee]

Various books claim that floppy disk drive is obsolete and useless. Yet I keep seeing mentions that a bootable floppy disk is required to "create a restore disk for antivirus or backup software", and another book mentions that if your BIOS has a "boot block", it will "run a floppy drive from which you can run a flashing program. If your BIOS is corrupt, but has a boot block,it will boot your PC to the floppy." So is floppy drive necessary or not?
And can a flash drive be used instead of a floppy drive in the scenarios above? Anyone know for sure? I'm planning on going the custom-build shop route, and don't want a floppy drive if its not necessary (I prefer the IronKey flash drive).

 

[aPanzerIV]

With the lifespans of modern hdd's, its probably not neccisary.

However, you can mannually back up your data on cd-rs, which can be booted.

 

[lhuser]

Floppy disk software is now found in CDs and they are much more modern programs. They can get you to clone your Hard drive to another, then you'll be good. For BIOS, most, if not all of them can be flashed via a USB stick and/or even within Windows itself.

I still keep a USB floppy drive, for any disks that I have (Data, programs and such) so it brings back the nostalgic moments.

 

[Tommy Boy]

I can't think of anything you'd need a bootable floppy disk for that you couldn't use a bootable cd for.

 

[Celegorm]

I can't think of anything you'd need a bootable floppy disk for that you couldn't use a bootable cd for.

The only thing that comes to mind for me are the people still using XP who wish to use RAID. It will only recognize those drivers off of floppy. Beyond that, I don't see any use for them either.

 

[darroll]

I love my floppy drive.
Won't be without it.

 

[~Darkseeker~]

BIOS firmware flashes are usually on CDs or DVDs now arent they? as are install DVDs and boot disks etc. etc.

only time ive used a floppy in the last 5-6 years was installing Win95 for fun.

With the lifespans of modern hdd's, its probably not neccisary.

However, you can mannually back up your data on cd-rs, which can be booted.

and what does HDD lifespan have to do with boot block and bios flashes? xD

 

[Indigo]

I still run into the occasional motherboard that won't read the BIOS flash image from a USB flash drive, but for some asinine reason it works with a USB floppy.

They're not like they used to be - in every system - but you can still find a good use for them, especially when you find some old diskette somewhere that you have some old documents on!

 

[Skygee]

I still run into the occasional motherboard that won't read the BIOS flash image from a USB flash drive, but for some asinine reason it works with a USB floppy.

They're not like they used to be - in every system - but you can still find a good use for them, especially when you find some old diskette somewhere that you have some old documents on!

Will external floppy drive (USB or eSATA sort) substitute for internal one, and do everything internal floppy can do?

 

[maverick0923]

On older OS's like Windows 2003 Server, XP, 2000 server, etc you still have to use an internal floppy for drivers that need to be loaded at the beginning of an install, unless your pre-load them with N-lite. With Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008 Server and so on, an external is just fine.