Dell and 3.5 Floppy

[JerryM]

I have heard that Dell is not putting 31/2 in floppy drives in its new PCs.While I recognize that it does not hold much data, I find the floppy more convenient than CDs for some applications. At this point in time I am not sure I would buy a PC that did not have a floppy drive.Any comments?Jerry

[Martini Lover]

I thought the same thing, buy a new laptop about six months ago. I bought a external drive, about $25 and haven't taken it out of the box. Just as easy to use a CD-RW and holds all the info you could want. I thought I would be the last to every give it up.

[GolfProRM]

When I built my current PC, I didn't put a floppy in it... I haven't missed it one bit. I do everything via CD or FTP anyway...

[Guest ThunderRiver]

Well, if you are getting a laptop, I highly encourage you to get rid of floppy drive. it is not very useful in mobile computing, and it takes too much space as well. My Compaq Evo n610c doesn't have a floppy drive, and I feel that I can live without it. The secret is "I have a USB memory stick from Lexar Media.. USB 1.1 128 Mb" Who needs floppy drive now? Oh you mean you want to boot off a floppy? Well, I think you need to start look for CD bootable options for your laptops...If you are getting a desktop, that's a different story. Floppy drive is cheap. Dell probably charges you 10 bucks for it, and I bet you can get it for cheaper. I got a brand new floppy drive at Houston for less than 5 bucks. Internal Floppy..Once again, I highly recommend USB drives as they are small and very useful for moving medium size files (like around 80 to 100 Mb). IBM already developed a USB drive that can substitute for bootable floppy, so you should look into that option as well.One of these days, floppy drive will be phased out almost entirely.. just like the old jumbo 1.2 floppy..Welcome to the club as the first wave of floppy-less generation

[Rons]

Check the Dell site. I believe you can still order a floppy disk on a desktop PC. Use the customize option.

[Stonegiant]

The floppy drive on my second computer doesn't work but I just haven't gotten around to removing it.

[greengeek]

Floppies are still useful on older machines that don't support booting from CD. As for the "jumbo" floppies, I still use them on a 486 which has two floppy drives and no CD drive. It's great for old games like Wolfenstein.

[Grasshopper]

Bought my wife a Sony VAIO recently. She lamented the fact that there was no floppy. I told her just to try it without it. Haven't heard a peep yet.

[Guest ThunderRiver]

Floppies are still useful on older machines that don't support booting from CD.  As for the "jumbo" floppies, I still use them on a 486 which has two floppy drives and no CD drive.  It's great for old games like Wolfenstein.

Floppy still turns useless on older machines, when there is a nice utility called Smart Boot ManagerI have had a number of successes using it, and honestly, it is truly a time-waste when it comes to creating 5 floppys just to boot and install an OS. This doesn't just include Windows 2k/xp, but also Slackware and some other flavors of BSD/Linux.

[zlim]

If a computer has 98 or above on it and at least 1 USB port, the jump/thumb/key drives are excellent replacements for floppies. I take those and the install CD (needed for 98 but not for newer OSes) when I go to help someone with his/her computer.

[Guest ThunderRiver]

I never managed to make USB thumb drive bootable though. I know IBM is doing that, but I am wondering about its underlying mechnism. If BIOS doesn't recognize USB devices upon booting, how would the thumb drive boot in the first place?Perhaps, Smart Boot Manager will one day comes in rescue.

[khisel]

Dell still offers floppy drives with their desktops, it's just an option. If you delete the floppy you save $20. But what they don't tell you is that they do not yet distribute BIOS updates installable from Windows. You must have a floppy drive to update your BIOS (at least that was the case with my 4600). I did opt for the floppy and I am glad I did!

[eksimba]

Dell still offers floppy drives with their desktops, it's just an option. If you delete the floppy you save $20. But what they don't tell you is that they do not yet distribute BIOS updates installable from Windows. You must have a floppy drive to update your BIOS (at least that was the case with my 4600). I did opt for the floppy and I am glad I did!

I just recently updated my Inspiron 8500 laptop's BIOS from within windows. No floppy needed.As for myself, I'll be happy when I never have to touch a floppy disk again...

[epp_b]

Floppy disks have become a standard, albeit an old one. Personally, I will probably miss the handy old things, but I'll also be glad when they've completely phased out (which probably isn't too far away...).Eventually, as companies start giving the option for $20 off to opt out of getting a floppy (or not even giving the option to have one), as all BIOS's start supporting legacy USB, as flash drives become cheaper and cheaper....floppies will disappear (how many people still buy 8-tracks anymore? )Currently, my only use for a floppy drive is bootable diagnostics/command line utilities (which should be solved by legacy USB-supporting BIOS's and USB keys) and my Sony FD85 digital camera, which writes directly to floppy disks (which is already solved by many cameras that simply write to flash memory and/or connect to a PC via USB or 1394).

[b2cm]

Many utilities require floppies for 'emergency" purposes or operations. So one might find the need for it someday. It really doesn't hurt to have a floppy drive, especially that they are very cheap and easy to install. And, if I were to choose, I'd rather get a floppy drive-less pc and get/install one of my choosing. Some floppy drives, i.e. Teac, Sony, are noisier than others.