Today, leading UK computer retailer PC World announced they will stop selling floppy disks. Most news sites seem to think this is a good step forward to new methods of data storage. I disagree, though.
Floppy disks are remarkably important. For example, most operating systems don’t have my RAID drivers; so in order for me to install them I must insert a floppy disk with the correct drivers on. The same goes for setting up old computers; you need a floppy disk in order to boot to CD.
Interestingly, software giant Microsoft seems to be keeping the flame alight for the floppy.
I wonder why! I remember my RC1 of Vista required RAID drivers on a floppy! On that note, I’m not planning on buying Vista any time soon.
I’m sure floppy disks will be available for many years to come across the Internet, though, so there’s no need to panic! 
Sorry for making just a brief (non Web 2.0 related!) post today, however, I’ve been pretty busy.
Tags: floppy disk, storage, hardware, floppy, floppies
Installing RAID drivers is about the only thing that I’ve needed a floppy for in recent years. I was shocked to discover that you can’t do it from a USB disk in Windows XP. It must be downright idiotic on Microsoft’s part if this is still the case in Vista.
To be honest, I did not take a close look.
Nonetheless, floppy disks seem like a much more convenient medium to install drivers.
Using a USB drive as a floppy isn’t supported on all motherboards though…also, if you take a look at the driver disk CD that came with your motherboard (assuming you are assembling the computer yourself), usually there are instructions on how to integrate the drivers into your windows installation disk.
but to pull this off, you need to burn a CD/DVD so you essentially will be needing a total of 2 computers (or, in case of an upgrade, make your new windows installation disk before before switching parts out).