Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The End of a Floppy Era
It’s something universally recognized with computers, and something I’ve come to loathe with a passion. Even though it’s changed over the years, it’s still mostly the same. I speak of none other than the floppy disk. We all know about it. That little black disk we’d have to dig out back in grade school every time the teacher gave us an assignment to do on the computer. The floppy disk was well intended, but its usefulness is now gone. Now, over 30 years later, the floppy disk needs to go for good.
It’s hard to think about how far we’ve come with our big storage numbers today, with the original floppy disk being eight inches and only holding 80 kilobytes. The floppy disk has at least decreased in physical size and increased in capacity. That doesn’t account for much though. Floppy disks are 3 ½ inches in size and only hold 1.44 Megs of data. Floppy disks might not even be so bad if they could just hold more. But with the size of different programs and files today, 1.44 Megs just doesn’t cut it. A single song on average is about 3 Megs. I know people have, numerous times, tried to do an assignment of some sort or had some important file they had to move, only to try and upload it to the floppy and it’s just too big. This is frustrating for sure.
Floppies themselves aren’t very friendly in the way of physical storage either. With what’s available today, there’s really no need to have some of their size holding so little information. Who really wants to carry a bunch of square discs around with them all the time? Certainly not me, and probably not most people if they had the chance. The actual drives for the floppy disk also take up room in the computer. That in itself may not be any big deal, but the space probably could go to something a little more useful. Companies like Dell have at least begun to make floppy drives optional, and external floppy drives are also now options for those users without floppy drives and would like to have one.
If all of this isn’t bad enough, floppies are slow. Maybe it’s kind of hard to complain about them being slow, since there’s so little you can put on them and speed doesn’t make much of a difference. But when using other storage means, there’s a significant difference that can be seen. Floppies aren’t always fun to use either. We’ve all had those moments where we or someone else has pulled the disk out of the drive while waiting for the slow little floppy drive light to go off. Or even worse, we get to a computer to use a floppy in, only to find it won’t work unless it’s formatted and all the data gets erased. My desktop computer for some reason refuses to use the transparent rainbow colored floppy disks for some reason unless it formats them first, but it will normally use a black floppy disk just fine. Then if it does format them, it slows down the computer in the process, and sometimes the format doesn’t even work in the end.
Years ago, maybe all of this was acceptable, and understandably so. But today, technology has advanced so fast that it has left the floppy disk in the dust. Compared to the paltry 1.44 Meg disks, we can carry huge sizes on drives small enough to fit comfortably onto our key chains. These are things I love: USB drives. I have one on my keychain myself. With the most recent and future Windows operating systems, most USB devices are recognized automatically, so there’s generally no problem getting the USB drives to work on a computer (although Windows 95 and 98 would require the downloading of drivers). USB drives are exceptionally faster than floppy disks by far, and come in sizes of 128, 256, and 512 Megs. For those who really need space, they’re offered in 1 and 2 Gigs. If that’s not quite enough, 3 and 4 Gigs are also offered, but they’re far too expensive at the moment.
In the last couple of months, I have had three other people buy a USB drive after I explained and demonstrated mine. I have also advocated my desire to see an end to the floppy. There have been numerous occasions where my floppy drive has come in handy (which ultimately led to the other people making their own purchases). In one instance, the floppy disks were not working to move Yearbook files from computer to computer shortly after I graduated high school and was trying to finish the yearbook. I decided to try my USB drive, and not only did it move them, but it did so significantly faster. In college Anatomy and Physiology class during the first part of summer, we were let into the library when it wasn’t open to study some slides. Floppy disks were $1 each, and since the library wasn’t technically open, no one could buy any yet and would have to wait until later. My USB drive helped me out and I had the Power Point slides to take home with me.
There really is very little reason to use floppy disks anymore. Devices such as USB drives are not only more convenient, faster, and more spacious than floppies, but they’re also inexpensive. A good USB drive will only run about $15-50 depending on what brand and type of size of USB drive you get. Some models even offer encryption. What’s not to like? Do yourself a favor: Dump your floppies, go to Wal-Mart or any computer store, and buy a USB drive. There’s no reason not to. When floppies fade into computer history and everyone else tries to make the transition to a new storage format, you’ll be glad you have one. You can even impress a few of your non-computer-savvy friends and maybe even get them to purchase one. I believe we will soon arrive at the end of a floppy era… a very floppy era…
source:http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=98
It’s hard to think about how far we’ve come with our big storage numbers today, with the original floppy disk being eight inches and only holding 80 kilobytes. The floppy disk has at least decreased in physical size and increased in capacity. That doesn’t account for much though. Floppy disks are 3 ½ inches in size and only hold 1.44 Megs of data. Floppy disks might not even be so bad if they could just hold more. But with the size of different programs and files today, 1.44 Megs just doesn’t cut it. A single song on average is about 3 Megs. I know people have, numerous times, tried to do an assignment of some sort or had some important file they had to move, only to try and upload it to the floppy and it’s just too big. This is frustrating for sure.
Floppies themselves aren’t very friendly in the way of physical storage either. With what’s available today, there’s really no need to have some of their size holding so little information. Who really wants to carry a bunch of square discs around with them all the time? Certainly not me, and probably not most people if they had the chance. The actual drives for the floppy disk also take up room in the computer. That in itself may not be any big deal, but the space probably could go to something a little more useful. Companies like Dell have at least begun to make floppy drives optional, and external floppy drives are also now options for those users without floppy drives and would like to have one.
If all of this isn’t bad enough, floppies are slow. Maybe it’s kind of hard to complain about them being slow, since there’s so little you can put on them and speed doesn’t make much of a difference. But when using other storage means, there’s a significant difference that can be seen. Floppies aren’t always fun to use either. We’ve all had those moments where we or someone else has pulled the disk out of the drive while waiting for the slow little floppy drive light to go off. Or even worse, we get to a computer to use a floppy in, only to find it won’t work unless it’s formatted and all the data gets erased. My desktop computer for some reason refuses to use the transparent rainbow colored floppy disks for some reason unless it formats them first, but it will normally use a black floppy disk just fine. Then if it does format them, it slows down the computer in the process, and sometimes the format doesn’t even work in the end.
Years ago, maybe all of this was acceptable, and understandably so. But today, technology has advanced so fast that it has left the floppy disk in the dust. Compared to the paltry 1.44 Meg disks, we can carry huge sizes on drives small enough to fit comfortably onto our key chains. These are things I love: USB drives. I have one on my keychain myself. With the most recent and future Windows operating systems, most USB devices are recognized automatically, so there’s generally no problem getting the USB drives to work on a computer (although Windows 95 and 98 would require the downloading of drivers). USB drives are exceptionally faster than floppy disks by far, and come in sizes of 128, 256, and 512 Megs. For those who really need space, they’re offered in 1 and 2 Gigs. If that’s not quite enough, 3 and 4 Gigs are also offered, but they’re far too expensive at the moment.
In the last couple of months, I have had three other people buy a USB drive after I explained and demonstrated mine. I have also advocated my desire to see an end to the floppy. There have been numerous occasions where my floppy drive has come in handy (which ultimately led to the other people making their own purchases). In one instance, the floppy disks were not working to move Yearbook files from computer to computer shortly after I graduated high school and was trying to finish the yearbook. I decided to try my USB drive, and not only did it move them, but it did so significantly faster. In college Anatomy and Physiology class during the first part of summer, we were let into the library when it wasn’t open to study some slides. Floppy disks were $1 each, and since the library wasn’t technically open, no one could buy any yet and would have to wait until later. My USB drive helped me out and I had the Power Point slides to take home with me.
There really is very little reason to use floppy disks anymore. Devices such as USB drives are not only more convenient, faster, and more spacious than floppies, but they’re also inexpensive. A good USB drive will only run about $15-50 depending on what brand and type of size of USB drive you get. Some models even offer encryption. What’s not to like? Do yourself a favor: Dump your floppies, go to Wal-Mart or any computer store, and buy a USB drive. There’s no reason not to. When floppies fade into computer history and everyone else tries to make the transition to a new storage format, you’ll be glad you have one. You can even impress a few of your non-computer-savvy friends and maybe even get them to purchase one. I believe we will soon arrive at the end of a floppy era… a very floppy era…
source:http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=98