Floppy Drives

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Floppy Drives
Topic Started: Sep 15 2011, 09:02 AM (408 Views)
Trotsky	Sep 15 2011, 09:02 AM Post #1
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	I like Floppies and I have lots of information on them, neatly catalogued. Obviously my new computer will not have a Floppy Drive. Given I will have an empty 3.5 inch slot is it difficult to install a floppy drive. DO all new motherboards have a place to connect them...same for Power Supply? Hmmm, do new computer cases even HAVE empty 3.5 inch slots? Can I presume Windows 7 will "find" the floppy and install it? Edited by Trotsky, Sep 15 2011, 09:07 AM.



Deleted User	Sep 15 2011, 09:09 AM Post #2
Deleted User	Custom build your computer and have a floppy drive put in ... that is what I did. I have a zillion uses for floppies plus a stockpile of disks. However, you can still buy, I think, an external floppy drive for around $10.00 or thereabouts.
Deleted User


wildie	Sep 15 2011, 09:38 AM Post #3
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	I'm considering a mother board upgrade for my desktop computer. I have a floppy drive presently. I have yet to find a m/b in the price range that I want to spend, that is capable of supporting an internal floppy drive. There are external, USB floppy drives available and I may have to settle for this one from Tiger Direct. Quote: eg. Sabrent 1.44MB External USB 2X Floppy Disk Drive (Black) This 1.44MB External USB Floppy Disk Drive is super slim and lightweight and brings functionality and versatility to your USB equipped computer I have a lot of old floppys on hand and have found that a very large percentage of these, have become unreadable. I think that the magnetic material is flaking off the disk. I would suggest that you would copy your floppy's onto DVDs, if you want to preserve your files.



reactivate	Sep 15 2011, 09:40 AM Post #4
Gold Star Member Posts: 3,897 Group: Member Member #769 Joined: May 18, 2010	Most (but not all) newer motherboards will accept the older PATA connections from older drives including floppy drives. You could probably move both your old hard drives and floppy drive from your old system to your new system. Many new cases do not have a slot for a floppy drive but you can buy an adapter. Many of the typically included "card readers" in new systems are designed to fit in the same bay as a floppy since they typically replaced the floppy. I think you are making an error by continuing the use of floppy disks. A typical writable CD, that can be written to on most systems, will hold on a single CD all the data you could cram onto about 500 floppy disks. You could copy every floppy you own onto a few CDs where the data is safer and more compatible with modern systems. I suspect much of what you have on floppy is data or programs that is no longer compatible with anything you have today. In any case, you no longer have any need of floppy type offline storage. Hard disk drives currently cost about $50 per TerraByte (about 1,000,000 floppy disks). An external enclosure for that same hard disk might be another $30. The bottom line is that today, storage (either internal or external) is cheap, fast and small).



Delphi51	Sep 15 2011, 03:04 PM Post #5
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	I think CDs are obsolete. Floppy disks are well beyond obsolete. Copy everything to a memory stick. The smallest stick you can buy ($10) will hold the contents of 8000 floppies.



Trotsky	Sep 15 2011, 03:59 PM Post #6
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	I know that I could get "everything on a DVD" or "everything on a memory stick" but I don't want everything in one place becasue the loss of that everything could be catastrophic. Finding something among the everything could get get tedious. Look at it this way. If you could combine everything you have ever read plus your entire library into one book, would you want to? Quote: From wildie: I have yet to find a m/b in the price range that I want to spend, that is capable of supporting an internal floppy drive. I am sad to hear that. :sigh: As far as cheap memory goes, how much cheaper can you get than 3 drives and 300 blank floppies under the bed? biggrin 04 Edited by Trotsky, Sep 15 2011, 04:03 PM.



wildie	Sep 15 2011, 04:21 PM Post #7
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	reactivate Sep 15 2011, 09:40 AM Most (but not all) newer motherboards will accept the older PATA connections from older drives including floppy drives. You could probably move both your old hard drives and floppy drive from your old system to your new system. It seems to me that support for PATA drives and floppy drives have been drastically reduced. Some m/b come with one PATA port only. I've been checking out Tiger Directs offerings ( http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=13&name=Motherboards ) and I don't any that support older floppy drives. Maybe it would be possible to buy an intenal USB floppy drive ???



Deleted User	Sep 15 2011, 08:48 PM Post #8
Deleted User	Have a look here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284892-30-motherboard-supports-floppy
Deleted User


Trotsky	Sep 16 2011, 01:17 AM Post #9
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	Does something like this $3.79 INTERFACE look like it might be useful? http://www.amazon.com/SATA-PATA-Drive-Interface-Adapter/dp/B002Y2NI4M



wildie	Sep 16 2011, 12:38 PM Post #10
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	Trotsky Sep 15 2011, 03:59 PM I know that I could get "everything on a DVD" or "everything on a memory stick" but I don't want everything in one place becasue the loss of that everything could be catastrophic. Finding something among the everything could get get tedious. Look at it this way. If you could combine everything you have ever read plus your entire library into one book, would you want to? Quote: From wildie: I have yet to find a m/b in the price range that I want to spend, that is capable of supporting an internal floppy drive. I am sad to hear that. :sigh: As far as cheap memory goes, how much cheaper can you get than 3 drives and 300 blank floppies under the bed? biggrin 04 FYI! Quote: A quote from Windows Secrets----------- "My XP desktop, which had floppy capability, had its motherboard and power supply fried by a lightning strike. How can I use my floppies, written with XP, on my new Dell desktop PC � which has only Windows 7 on it and no floppy drive?" You're in luck! Win7 has the ability to read and write 3.5-inch floppies � whether they were written on XP, Win9x, or even DOS systems. All you need is the hardware: a floppy drive. Open your favorite search engine and enter the phrase USB external 3.5-inch, 1.44MB floppy. You'll find a number of well-known national retailers selling plug-and-play floppy drives for U.S. $20 or so. Just plug one into a spare USB port, and you're good to go!



reactivate	Sep 16 2011, 02:55 PM Post #11
Gold Star Member Posts: 3,897 Group: Member Member #769 Joined: May 18, 2010	But, if one were to add an external floppy USB drive, why not add an external USB hard drive? While Trotsky may think having everything in one place is a bad ides, a properly organized directory tree structure would allow anything to be found much easier than the equivalent in lose floppies. As for security, a single hard drive is much easier to duplicate and to store the duplicate elsewhere (even for free).



Delphi51	Sep 16 2011, 05:01 PM Post #12
Member title Posts: 13,967 Group: Administration Member #441 Joined: October 10, 2006	Very good advice, Reactivate. And the data is far safer on a hard drive or memory stick than on a floppy. My memory is that floppies became quite unreliable when the price went way down. The $20 price wasn't enough to cover radial alignment so you often could not read the floppy on a drive other than the one it was written on. I bought a $20 SATA and PATA to USB adapter but it didn't work. A PATA to SATA adapter will not work with a floppy drive. You may have trouble opening the files on a new computer anyway. Got the install disks for the old program's? They may well not work in Windows 7 anyway. If you want to save the data, best to use your old computer to open them and save in some long lasting format such as plain text, Rich Text, CSV for spreadsheets, mp3 for audio, jpg for photos. Don't junk the old computer until you have opened your valuable files on the new machine. Once or twice I went to the trouble of writing programs to translate files. There are some good free translators on the web.



Trotsky	Sep 17 2011, 02:35 AM Post #13
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	Quote: I bought a $20 SATA and PATA to USB adapter but it didn't work. A PATA to SATA adapter will not work with a floppy drive. Thanks Delph...that saves me $3.79 plus shipping. I guess I might have to face reality and throw all the floppy data onto a couple of CDR's or CD-RW's until I buy the new rig. I remember back a few editions of Windows and the capability was east to nework 2 computers. Is that a reasonable way to move data from the old drive to the new until I am certain I have everything I want? I have the original install discs for every program I ever owned...Down to LOTUS SMART SUITE '97 which I still use for word processing (WORD PRO) and spreadsheeting (LOTUS 123.) It was a major FREE upgrade to the LSS '96 that came with my first computer. Does anyone need a copy of Windows For WORKGROUPS 3.11????? I even have it on 5 1/4 inch floppies. 102 bounce and jump045 How about WIN 95 on 12 Floppies, but those are the NEW and IMPROVED 3 1/2 inch Floppies? Quote: why not add an external USB hard drive? External drives = Desk clutter. Edited by Trotsky, Sep 17 2011, 02:57 AM.



Trotsky	Sep 17 2011, 03:08 AM Post #14
Big City Boy Posts: 38,319 Group: Member Member #79 Joined: September 8, 2005	Sorry! I got this in the wrong place. Edited by Trotsky, Sep 17 2011, 03:11 AM.



wildie	Sep 17 2011, 07:45 AM Post #15
Veteran Member Posts: 12,173 Group: Member Member #442 Joined: October 11, 2006	reactivate Sep 16 2011, 02:55 PM But, if one were to add an external floppy USB drive, why not add an external USB hard drive? While Trotsky may think having everything in one place is a bad ides, a properly organized directory tree structure would allow anything to be found much easier than the equivalent in lose floppies. As for security, a single hard drive is much easier to duplicate and to store the duplicate elsewhere (even for free). I do agree with you and i'm slowly moving away from floppies. I have found that the lifespan of floppies is seriously limited and have been disappointed when i wished to check back and found that the info is lost.



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