06-02-2003 04:24									#61
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quote: Originally posted by DinoDoc Do they have re-recordable CD's? * DinoDoc shows how non-tech savvy he is

Certainly, and DVDs. You need to get out of your cave more often!

	06-02-2003 04:27									#62
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I don't like this, but fortunatly, I can always add in a floppy drive (no, not all of my machiens have easy net access or usb slots or a cd burner. Plus, I still have lots of software still on floppy disks)

I'm suprised no ones mentioned the possibility that someone might need a boot disk

	06-02-2003 04:29									#63
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quote: Originally posted by Edan I'm suprised no ones mentioned the possibility that someone might need a boot disk

That's because CD-ROMs have been bootable for many years.

	06-02-2003 04:36									#64
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quote: Originally posted by Asher That's because CD-ROMs have been bootable for many years.

Must have missed that option on the software that came with my cd recorder. It would be great to have a bootable cd with dos on it for my old games (OTOH, given how many times I've had to changes those config files/memory managment/etc to make certain games work, maybe I should stick with disks.)

	06-02-2003 04:39									#65
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You just gotta make sure your CD-ROM comes before the harddrives in the boot sequence in the BIOS.

Mine goes:
Floppy
CD-ROM
CD-RW
HD1
HD2

As long as the CD-ROM is infront of the HD, if it's got the relevant system files on it (just like the floppy), it'll boot the disc instead.

That's why Windows XP doesn't come with a boot floppy. The CD is the boot disc.

	06-02-2003 04:40									#66
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Legacy systems still need legacy hardware. My Tandy1000 still uses 5.25 drives, as it can't handle 3.5 drives.

But moving away from legacy hardware is a good thing.

	06-02-2003 04:42									#67
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quote: Originally posted by Asher That's why Windows XP doesn't come with a boot floppy. The CD is the boot disc.

Well, Windows 98 comes on a bootable CD-Rom too, which I've used, so getting the cd-rom to boot wasn't the problem. Making CDRs bootable was the issue (though I admit not looking at the software closely enough to tell if it is capable of making bootable CD-Roms).

	06-02-2003 04:45									#68
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All a bootable CD-ROM or a bootable floppy is is a regular disk, with specific system files on it.

In Easy CD Creator, the wizard for it is at: File -> New CD Project -> Bootable CD Project

	06-02-2003 05:00									#69
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These PC freaks don't understand you, Asher; you're too far out in front of the pack. You need to associate with people who will appreciate your forward looking manner...

Come, join the Apple faithful. You'll fit in with us, as we're always ahead of the curve. We've been floppy-free for years now. Join us...

	06-02-2003 05:06									#70
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Is ASHER an acronym for Apolyton's Slashdot Headline Entity Retriver?

	06-02-2003 06:02									#71
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As usual, apple is ahead of the game. I use a Zip disk on my apple and I have no problem.

	06-02-2003 06:23									#72
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quote: Originally posted by Asher Remember when the 5" floppy drives were the standard when the new 3.25" floppies were introduced? At one point the industry decided to stop shipping 5" floppies on computers and ship 3.25" instead. The same thing is happening now, 3.25" going out the window and being replaced by CD-RW and USB. The people who really need the old floppies can still use them. But over time people finally get rid of the old, and in with the new...

For somebody who knows so much about computers, it's kind of funny that you got this wrong.

The old floppy was 5.25" , the newer floppies are 3.5" .

My,my,my....

ACK!

	06-02-2003 07:07									#73
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This discussion reminds me of my parents and the fact that they still have 8 tracks in their music collection. I can remember how miffed they were years ago when they couldn't get an 8 track player on their new stereo

	06-02-2003 07:15									#74
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Excluding the possibility that you want to give a file to a non-tech savvy person behind a firewall who doesn't have a cd drive, I don't see the use for floppies.

	06-02-2003 07:30									#75
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quote: Originally posted by Provost Harrison I must confess I absolutely detest floppy disks ever since I can remember...you can hardly fit anything on them, they invariably go wrong amd fill with errors...good riddance, I would certainly dance on their grave

They are great for saving/transferring simple files, such as word documents and such, much more conveneint than burning a cd for the purpose... im gonna miss them

	06-02-2003 07:41									#76
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quote: Originally posted by Tuberski For somebody who knows so much about computers, it's kind of funny that you got this wrong. The old floppy was 5.25" , the newer floppies are 3.5" . My,my,my.... ACK!

Yeah yeah, semantics.
Both were well before my time.

I'm a new age freak.

quote: Is ASHER an acronym for Apolyton's Slashdot Headline Entity Retriver?

Nah, I only post the interesting ones. Most of the stuff posted on Slashdot is crap, and half of them are duplicate posts.

quote: Come, join the Apple faithful. You'll fit in with us, as we're always ahead of the curve. We've been floppy-free for years now. Join us...

Apple went floppy-free well before alternatives were easily available, cheap, and fast. Plus, for being "ahead of the curve", Apple seems to be about 10 years behind in the mouse and keyboard department.

	06-02-2003 08:04									#77
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quote: Originally posted by Asher Yeah yeah, semantics. Both were well before my time. I'm a new age freak.

Unfortunately, I remember using 5.25" disks in high school programming class.

BASIC and PASCAL.

ACK!

	06-02-2003 08:07									#78
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quote: Originally posted by Tuberski Unfortunately, I remember using 5.25" disks in high school programming class. BASIC and PASCAL. ACK!

Basic is still somewhat used in a couple forms these days, Visual Basic and Real Basic.

Pascal not so much, but it's still a popular academic language. My school insisted on teaching Pascal in our first semester CS class to serve as an intro to people who never programmed before, since Pascal's syntax can be printed out on a single page.

	06-02-2003 08:08									#79
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I hope all of you who are archiving to CD have taken notice of the impending death of the floppy.

What do you think is going to happen in fifteen years when someone shows up waving a CD and asking who can print out the copy of their will, great American novel, or other invaluable file. "Dude. what's that? Did you find it in a museum?"

	06-02-2003 08:14									#80
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quote: Originally posted by mindseye I hope all of you who are archiving to CD have taken notice of the impending death of the floppy. What do you think is going to happen in fifteen years when someone shows up waving a CD and asking who can print out the copy of their will, great American novel, or other invaluable file. "Dude. what's that? Did you find it in a museum?"

Well, that and the fact that the content of CD-Rs and CD-RWs supposedly begins degrading after ten years...

	06-02-2003 08:14									#81
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I will never buy a computer without a floppy drive. I always use it from, say when something criticaly goes wrong with the OS and I need to formatt and reinstall the entire OS, or if I need to run a program outside a Windows shell, or just transport documents, it comes very handy. Not every computer out there has a ZIP drive, and not every CDROM drive can read Adaptec formatted CDRWs.


BTW, I bought an external 5" floppy drive (serial port) since I have a lot of those that I STILL use.

I don't use MS Word... I use SAMNA!

	06-02-2003 08:16									#82
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quote: Originally posted by Thrawn05 I will never buy a computer without a floppy drive. I always use it from, say when something criticaly goes wrong with the OS and I need to formatt and reinstall the entire OS

Put in your Windows XP boot disc. Use its recovery console to format and reinstall...don't need a floppy at all.

quote: or if I need to run a program outside a Windows shell

Use a DOS boot CD-ROM, rather than a DOS boot floppy...

quote: or just transport documents, it comes very handy. Not every computer out there has a ZIP drive, and not every CDROM drive can read Adaptec formatted CDRWs.

Again, Windows XP standardized the format for reading files off a CDRW, rather than using Adaptec's DirectCD.

If you need to transfer something via floppy to old computers...well, then you can buy a computer without a floppy and install your own drive.

	06-02-2003 08:17									#83
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quote: Originally posted by Thrawn05 I will never buy a computer without a floppy drive. I always use it from, say when something criticaly goes wrong with the OS and I need to formatt and reinstall the entire OS, or if I need to run a program outside a Windows shell, or just transport documents, it comes very handy. Not every computer out there has a ZIP drive, and not every CDROM drive can read Adaptec formatted CDRWs. BTW, I bought an external 5" floppy drive (serial port) since I have a lot of those that I STILL use. I don't use MS Word... I use SAMNA!

In my case, Thank God for floppies. It allowed my to download your Mingapulco mod for morrwind at work and take it home.



ACK!

	06-02-2003 08:20									#84
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quote: Unfortunately, I remember using 5.25" disks in high school programming class.

My first program was written on ticker tape. Later I graduated to punch cards.

I also remember the 7" floppies that preceeded the the ubiquitous "five-and-a-quarters".

You kiddies can go back to your cartoons now.

	06-02-2003 08:28									#85
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quote: Originally posted by mindseye quote: Unfortunately, I remember using 5.25" disks in high school programming class. My first program was written on ticker tape. Later I graduated to punch cards. I also remember the 7" floppies that preceeded the the ubiquitous "five-and-a-quarters". You kiddies can go back to your cartoons now.

I remember the 7" floppies and have seen Tape and punch cards, but never used any of them. My friends father had all kinds of that stuff in his workshop at home.

Some of it even in working condition.

ACK!

	06-02-2003 08:34									#86
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QUOTE:
__________________________________
Originally posted by Asher

Put in your Windows XP boot disc. Use its recovery console to format and reinstall...don't need a floppy at all.
__________________________________

One prob, it doesn't work since my HD doesn't have an autoexec.bat (well, it does but it's empty) so I have to make it on my own.

__________________________________
Use a DOS boot CD-ROM, rather than a DOS boot floppy...
__________________________________

And what if I need to use programs on other CD? And plus why should I bother changing the boot order in my BIOS?

__________________________________
Again, Windows XP standardized the format for reading files off a CDRW, rather than using Adaptec's DirectCD.
__________________________________

Not every computer I, or people I know, have WinXP.

__________________________________
If you need to transfer something via floppy to old computers...well, then you can buy a computer without a floppy and install your own drive. [/QUOTE]
__________________________________

That's IF they make computer that have the 3" bay that I can take a panel off to slide it in.

Asher, go ahead if you don't want floppies. Like having a computer without one is really going to save you money. Pay the man $10 along with the rest of the cost of your computer and move on. Forceing everyone not to have floppies is wrong.

	06-02-2003 08:53									#87
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quote: Originally posted by Thrawn05 One prob, it doesn't work since my HD doesn't have an autoexec.bat (well, it does but it's empty) so I have to make it on my own.

I don't understand why this is a problem? Everything you can do with a floppy can be done with the CD-ROM...

quote: And what if I need to use programs on other CD? And plus why should I bother changing the boot order in my BIOS?

Boot discs are only needed for booting the system. Once it's done booting, you can remove it. It doesn't run the OS off your floppy you know.

quote: Not every computer I, or people I know, have WinXP.

That's true, which is why if you're going to transfer data to a legacy computer you'd use a CD-R, the internet (FTP, email, HTTP, whatever), possibly a USB device, or even a floppy disk. As you can see, the only purpose floppies have is for old machines, which is why they shouldn't ship by default on new ones. Those that need them can use them, we need to cut away from floppy for general use now.

quote: That's IF they make computer that have the 3" bay that I can take a panel off to slide it in.

If they don't have a 3" drivebay (why wouldn't they??), spend $1.00 on a 5"-bay mounting bracket.

quote: Asher, go ahead if you don't want floppies. Like having a computer without one is really going to save you money. Pay the man $10 along with the rest of the cost of your computer and move on. Forceing everyone not to have floppies is wrong.

Forcing everyone to *HAVE* floppies is wrong. They're just horrible.

I'm not forcing everyone not to have floppies, they can freely and easily install them on their own (hell, did you see the USB->Floppy adapter I linked to?). Floppies are obsolete. The only reason we need them around is for old computers, and at some point or another we have to stop shipping them on new computers and replace the technology with something more reliable, with a higher capacity, and faster. That time is now, since there's ample replacement media out there that are dirt cheap. Did you know it costs more to manufacture a floppy disc than a CD-R?

And for the love of God, please find out how to quote properly.

	06-02-2003 09:22									#88
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CDs are too big. I prefer something I can carry in my pocket. I'd like to see Mini-Discs make an appearence on computers.

	06-02-2003 09:26									#89
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Most current CD drives can run minidisks as well.

	06-02-2003 09:28									#90
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quote: Originally posted by MattHiggs CDs are too big. I prefer something I can carry in my pocket. I'd like to see Mini-Discs make an appearence on computers.

So buy one of them USB doohickies.