USB 3.5" Floppy?

[machow]

Is there such thing as that? I wish I could ditch the 'legacy' floppy so that I could get an irq free. How many of you used floppy as much as you use CD-ROM? I think we should ditch that technology too. It is obselete. It was great <i>15</i> years ago, but now? Even for trouble shooting I can boot from CDROM. Heh. I need it because my school uses it. I also make occassional backups like favorites folder etc. But no, I cannot put my backup of even an mp3 into a floppy. How I wish I get one of those.

Morgan 1.6Ghz + 256DDR - SDRAM = Dream on
However dreams are approacable

 

[Guest]

I believe the SuperDisk LS 120s run off your IDE chain, and read normal floppy disks. I would prefer that to USB anyways, I've heard (probably from this website) that USB takes up extra CPU juice.

 

[machow]

Oh well i am not running floppies for hours like i run hdds. so a period of time on floppies is worth that minor performance hit when you can get an irq free.

Morgan 1.6Ghz + 256DDR SDRAM = Dream on
However dreams are approacable

 

[thein]

there are plenty out there. I've been buying legacy free IBM NetVistas at work. Our default config has no floppy (or CD), we just buy an external USB floppy and share it amongst the few people who occasionaly need one. IBM makes one and there are plenty of others. I haven't seen one for less than $50US.

 

[machow]

Err... 50 bucks looks too expensive to those normal ones at 10 bucks or less... any more solutions?


Smart guys are not smart; they only see things in different perspective.
1st <b>member</b>!

 

[Guest]

Be careful though. If you try to use a USB floppy drive, you probably won't be able to boot with it. Which isn't really a good thing.

 

[machow]

No problemo. Didn't I mention I boot from CDROM :tongue: ?


Smart guys are not smart; they only see things in different perspective.
1st <b>member</b>!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by machow on 11/14/00 05:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Imation makes an internal IDE LS120 Super Disk (which I have) as well as an external USB version. They are a bit expensive though $75+. A standard floppy costs all of $15.
What's the big deal about losing one IRQ - they can be shared. Also, the floppy uses IRQ 6 which has been standard for ages. I doubt anything would want to try to use that IRQ anyway. You could disable your Serial ports in BIOS to free up IRQs.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Yeah, you can boot from a CD ROM. So why do standard computers still come with a floppy? Why is this ancient device still needed? Simple. Writable CD ROMs just aren't common enough.

The day that EVERY new CD ROM is a rewritable CD ROM and a person can more or less use their rewritable CD ROMs as floppies, THEN you'll see computers ditch the floppy.

Until then, people still need a common standard for transferring files to a removable media. Since things like ZIP and tape drives are anything but a standard, that means that the change will probably hinge around something like the rewritable CD ROM.

So until rewritable CD ROMs are always built into every machine as an industry standard, good luck expecting floppies to vanish from the commonplace standards of what a computer is.

- Anything can be fixed with duct tape, a swiss army knife, and WD-40.