Sony are ceasing production of 3.5" floppies

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1556410]

Comments

[andrewducker]

The last time I saw some floppies was when Ed found an old box of them lying about, I think. It's been CDs or USB keys for _aaaages_ for me.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

*nods* The last time I used one was sometime in the late 90s. I found some old ones 2 years ago when I was moving, and IIRC, I threw them out because I had nothing to do with them and was also fairly certain that there wasn't anything on them that I remotely needed.

[simont]

I stood next to somebody using a floppy last week, but didn't inhale lay a finger on it myself.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I last saw them in Macedonia in 2004

[drplokta]

Are we counting bootable disk images that were originally floppy disks?

[andrewducker]

Just the physical disks. Because disk images don't rely on Sony (or others) still manufacturing the objects.

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

I used them up until I got a USB stick a year or so ago.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

Arcade/flight sims I worked on in 1995 still used 8" floppies.

[andrewducker]

Oooh, when I was at school, in 1986-ish, we had a network of RM Lynx 480Z machines, running off a server that had two 8" floppy drives. One was for the OS and common apps, and the other for less common apps that might be on a number of floppies. If you wanted to run one of the less common apps that was on a different disk then you had to check nobody else was running anything on the current disk before switching over, or Bad Things happened.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Month, and I *hate* it. Stupid obsolete things in use by stupid obsolete people!

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

My 11 year old electric piano records on to floppies. They're a hell of a lot easier than messing around with the midi-usb cable and drivers that keeps vanishing. Does this make me stupid and obsolete?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I mostly deal with BANKS who fedex me floppy disks and expect me to do something with them. I have a USB floppy drive but EWW EWW EWW can't you manage SFTP? It's LIKE a floppy, but 900x faster, cheaper, and NOT INTERCEPTIBLE BY ANY IDIOT WHO CAN NOTICE A FLOPPY IN THE MAIL!

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

And then there's a very old usb network adapter that I own that I used to temporarily extend a network cable until amazon delivered the new 15m one. It's so old that the drivers were on a floppy. I had to transfer them to a usb drive so my friend could install them. Am I stupid for keeping that piece of hardware even though it's drivers were on a floppy?

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I know I used them in my first year at uni, and then I started just using webmail as storage instead.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

I have a whole load of them in the attic, along with the computer that goes with it. Same goes for the AT my father got the family in the very early 90s. EGA, 20 mb hard disk, DOS operated (windows 3.1 could run on the machine but was utterly useless) and 5,25" floppies. The ones that would actually flop. I have a whole load of those in the attic as well. Don't think I'll ever use them again, but I just can't get myself to get rid of them.

[thadrin.livejournal.com]

We used to use one exclusively for transferring data between a non-networked pc that was hooked up to one of our analysis machines at work and the computer where we process the results.

We've been using USB sticks for around three years I'd guess (so that's what I voted). I think we still have the disc in a draw in my lab. I have a box of old discs lying around here somewhere, but my current machine doesn't have a 3.5" drive. In fact it only just occurred to me that it didn't.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I did get a floppy disk sent to me in the post last year, by an old client who wanted me to amend the system I wrote for them in, er, 2001. Told her I didn't have anything capable of reading it any more ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

My main machine at home still has a 3.5" floppy drive! And I have a USB floppy drive "for emergencies".

The last time I touched a floppy disk was ... yesterday. Though it was only to move it from one box to another.

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

BIOS updates used to be floppy only as USB devices weren't supported. Thankfully they've overcome that with in OS updates and BIOS USB support.

So yeah, 3 years ago for a very minor reason - much longer for actual proper use.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I think within the last five years I was still tinkering with old machines that needed a boot floppy to make them then go on to boot from a CD.

[in-thy-bounty.livejournal.com]

The last I recall using them was for an updated database of Championship Manager 97/98. It was all cds after that all the way through to USB sticks.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I know what it is really, but I think the last time I used one was to store my undergrad dissertation, which is now nineteen years ago.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

When I was writing up my thesis (about 15 years ago), my elaborate backup scheme (partly the product of procrastination) included a copy of the entire source - graphics and all - that just fit on a single 3.5" floppy. It gave me great comfort in the last few desperate weeks to always have a copy of it in my pocket. (As well as on the hard disk, other floppies, and on various networked things too.)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Somewhere on Tony's link blog the article was linked to with title "the beginning of the end for floppy disks?" I said "should that be the END of the end...?" :)

[andrewducker]

Nope - there are still a few other producers of floppy disks...

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Actually, they were what I call "crispies" -- a floppy disk inside a hard (3.5 inch?) rectangular casing. Still have a couple of unopened boxes of them around here someplace, but have been throwing used ones in the trash as I come across them because the drive in my old/back-up computer no longer works.

I like your option "A what?".

[dreema.livejournal.com]

we've been redoing a few servers here recently, and rather than fanny about with slipstreaming drivers onto boot cds, it's often easier to dump the raid drivers onto floppy and hit F6 at the relevant point.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Between three and five years ago; but here's the kicker -- only because there were a batch of old ones around and I wanted to find out what was on them before destroying them.

Otherwise, I haven't used a floppy for personal use at all since I first got a Mac, and that was over eight years ago. I'm much more gutted about the demise of cassette tapes than I am about floppies to be honest. Though I'm about to acquire (a) a commercial cassette tape, and (b) a copy of some music to learn on cassette tape. I am boggled by both these things, but fortunately have a cassette deck around here (designed for the transferring of information from cassette deck to MP3).

Separately, I was explaining this research to Marianne earlier today, and discovered that she had never seen a black and white TV or monitor. Other than on TV.

[andrewducker]

Those tongue-glasses are very impressive. Particularly that our brains can translate it in an understandable way.

I never had a black and white TV - my dad always liked having new technology, so they had a colour tv from before I can remember. But I certainly saw them a few times - as well as ones with dials on the front.

I also never had vinyl - the first album I had was on CD. But then I started late with that. The last of my tapes only went a few months back, when Julie moved in and we went through a lot of our stuff that hadn't actually been touched in months/years.

[matgb]

only because there were a batch of old ones around and I wanted to find out what was on them before destroying them.


This, pretty much, only I'm prety sure it was more'n 5 years ago, but I'm not sure. It was during an office clearout, so probably 2004 when we moved site, but...

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

There's one sticking out of my computer right now.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

To qualify my answer: I found a cache of old floppy disks, and all I did was copy the contents to HDD before chucking the disks out.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I have about ten 3.5" floppies that are "picture disks." We have close to ten computers in this house, but none of them have a 3.5" floppy slot.

I don't want to throw them away until I'm sure I have the pictures on some other kind of back-up media, but I know it's going to be a pain to check them out. Hopefully I can take my flash drive to the library in the hopes they have machines with the 3.5" slot.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who uses floppies to decorate her car:



The 5" floppies she has to paint. If she leaves them black, they melt off the car in direct sunlight.

[gravityslave.livejournal.com]

That is in the top five of Coolest Things I've Ever Seen.
Tell your friend she's amazing! If she starts a religion I want in.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Your wish is my serving suggestion.

[andrewducker]

That's very cool!

ugh, looks so much better now!

[lara7.livejournal.com]

It almost makes me cringe seeing this photo of the car in such bad repair. I bet this was the SACBO year I moved and didn't have a chance to pretty up the car and replace old disks before the Fair.

[lionsphil.livejournal.com]

I've used low density floppy disks recently, and lament that people are growing up who will not recognize the noise of a drive chugging along.

[andrewducker]

Or the sound of a modem...