Linux Mint Forums

I was just woundering.

On their day-to-day systems (no custom built NAS, firewalls, automated systems & things like that) does anyone still use floppy disks?

I just woundered as I've noticed a few posts on here regarding mounting floppy disks & it made me realise that even though I have a floppy drive in my system its been disconnected for probably about 9 years (& not used for 10)

Ah, sweet nostalgia I used to have a ton of floppy disks, but indeed it must have been 10 years ago if not more that I last used one. I don't have any floppy disks or disk drives now. Even my CD/DVD drive will not be needed soon I think; I only use it from time to time when I have some music on CD. But once classical music is more readily available for digital purchase, I won't need the CD/DVD drive. Everything else goes on USB thumb drives or mostly online storage these days. How times have changed...

Talking of CD/DVD - just realised, I cant remember the last time I played a music CD - just mp3's all time now-a-days

Floppy disks might be dying but they've got a niche . . . In aviation for example, floppy disks are still used to update the flight management system databases on older aircraft. These aircraft will probably still be flying and requiring monthly updates for another 10yrs.

We're going through our collection of floppy disks and rescuing the data from the degrading magnetic disks. It makes me sad to think that the old disks are just wearing out.
I used floppy disks into the mid-2000's, and still have a 3 1/2 floppy drive in my computer. I even used it recently to try to install MS-DOS 5 in a virtual machine.
I'd say one of the biggest problems with floppies is that files have outgrown them. About the only thing that fits on floppies anymore are documents and text files. Anything remotely fancy will take dozens of floppies, if its even possible. Half the time CDs aren't even enough space.
Maybe I'm just old school, but I'm not complaining, especially not with the marvelous tick-tick-tick of the AT keyboard I am using (with an adapter).

They make nice rifle targets.

Ditched floppies for optical media and flash drives years ago.

I still keep floppies around for solar eclipses. Break one open and you can use the film to protect your eyes while watching an eclipse. Granted its rare.

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I quit using floppies for data storage years ago, but I made hanging ceiling art outta my old floppies by chaining them together with string.

They still come in handy for propping under a door when your re-securing it to the door frame.

Although I am tempted to give this a try http://www.likecool.com/Floppy_Disk_USB_Flash_Drive--DIY--Gear.html

I think the only way people use floppy disks today is for fun as a sort of a nostalgia about the good old times. Or to make music like in this video where they make [url=http://mp3pole.com/video/yHJOz_y9rZE/Floppy-music-DUO-Imperial-march]floppy disk music[/url] .

MazendaLee wrote:I have some floppy disks

You have some what?

Got rid of all my floppy disks, 3 1/2 and my 5 1/4 wish I kept some for old times sake.

I certainly don't miss pulling three 5 1/4 floppies out of one drive because someone thought inserting the next disk didn't require removing the previous one. I do miss them though. I used to be able to get one to fly through 2 doorways from one end of the house to the other (and those AOL CDs).
In fact, the only time I've used even an optical disk on any of my own systems was making the Windows backup disks before I formatted the hard drive and installed Mint. (because the manufacturers are too tight to ship them. )

I also stopped using FDDs a long time ago. Floppy-disks are practically obsolete, unless you're doing some fiddly bootup stuff. I remember having those floppy-disks that were actually floppy! Good times. My computer doesn't even have an FDD. I remember, way back in the day, when I used to take a load of floppy-disks to school, wait until I could get to the library computers, then frantically download as many games or softwares as I could! xD

I have a whole collection including old data and dos games (almost all being 1440kb 3.5" disks + some apps on 5.25" floppies..)
--but they are somewaht awkward to work with on Linux

• I usually end up using dosemu
  --to make use of diskettes

If I really needed it(a diskette read/write/use) to function all the time, I would look into diskette operations under Linux more completely to get disk access and release (umount(s)) more realiably done/easier to use..
--unfortunately, even though some of the data is still useful to me, I haven't gotten arround to reading all that disktette(s) data into my system: I'm probably just too lazy to bother

There used to be a floppy/diskette based NAS system, but I don't think it is around or usdeful any longer: probably gone to a usb drive or CD
http://www.serverelements.com/?target=Products
--that was the one i was thinking about.