Finally, Death of the 3.5 inch floppy disk

[larwe]

On Apr 27, 12:23 am, "Mr.T" <MrT@home> wrote:

I explicitly did not include digital downloads for obvious reasons.

Yes you appeared to be making an invalid point.

No, you just seem to be unwilling to think about what I was saying.

How silly, even digital downloads must end up on some "physical media
format", even if it's a hard drive.
And IF you consider vinyl to be analogous to buggy whips, why the silly quiz
in the first place?

That's even more ridiculous. You do not buy digital downloads as a
sector on your hard drive that is received and glued onto the platter,
you buy the information download. You can delete your personal copy
and redownload it later. In some cases you never actually download it
in the sense of "for storage locally", you just stream it from an
online library on demand.

By your argument, we should be considering the purchase of CD wallets
as part of the CD sales process. And perhaps the purchase of whatever
media were used to master the album originally.

BTW, I refuse to believe the music DVD one - I've never even SEEN a
music DVD. It's like SACD; it's an acronym, there were/are devices

Now that's *really* silly. I have about a hundred, and there are *many*
thousands currently available.

LOL. I could say the same thing about my collection of 78rpm records.
SACD and audio DVD are primarily an attempt by the music industry to
get rid of CDs because CDs have no DRM.

 

[Doug McIntyre]

John Tserkezis <jt@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> writes:

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
The only way to load device drivers (drive interfaces, SCSI drivers
etc) when installing windows is via the drive at A:. And that's your
only option.

My latest machine lacks floppy support on the motherboard (Asus P6T
WS). They suggest using a USB flash drive or USB floppy for RAID
drivers.

That's nice, but USB flash drives won't ever map to A: or B:. This is
done intentionally, and it makes perfect sense. But it doesn't help the
fact that Windows will not look at *any* other drive than A:.

I have a Flash Drive that mimics part of its space as a USB Floppy
that *does* map to drive A: or B:. Unfortunately it doesn't work very
well with most systems.

So, that leaves USB interfaced FDDs, or, as already suggested, creating
an alternative boot disk with the drivers included.

Of course this is all only just for WinXP (ie. that Windows release
from 8 years ago), or Server 2003 from 7 years ago..

Vista & Win7/Server 2008 either release have methods to read in
RAID/HBA drivers off flash or USB devices during installation while
booted into WinPE. And its easy to make a new WinPE boot environment
with said drivers if needed.

 

[Joerg]

Don McKenzie wrote:

Jon wrote:
"Don McKenzie" <5V@2.5A> wrote in message
news:83mgi7Fu8vU1@mid.individual.net...
Hi Lewin,

Considering Sony produced the first 3.5" floppies, and currently hold
70% of the world market, and many other manufacturers have pulled the
plug, I would say death is very close to describing what the usage
will be in 2011.

I have stashed away 3-1/2" disks and also 5-1/4" floppies. In production
the lifetime of machines is often many decades and there are numerous
machines that will not be re-programmable via any other means.

Some people still go to drive-in cinemas, use Betamax video format,
rotary dial phones, and Edison wax cylinders, so these aren't dead
either.

Only thing that is really dead, are people that fall off the perch.


Cheers Don...


They still charge us a 'service fee' on the phone bill if we opt for
touch tone service.

Until recently we paid an extra tax via the phone bill to finance the
Spanish-American war which AFAIK ended in 1898 ...

Just a thought.
How many kids 15 or under would know what a rotary dial is, or ever used
one?

Then, how many kids 15 or under, have ever written, or read a file
to/from a 3.5" floppy?.

Not a lot I would think.
I can't remember when I last used a floppy, must be many years. Would
have been to prop up a short leg on a table.

Footnote **
I laugh when the little ones of today, have to look at the back of your
camera, after you take a picture. What did we do before they put the
screen there?

We learned how to take good photographs, in my case I took classes.
Because the cost of a 24 or 36 roll of 35mm film (or 12 exposures in the
6cm by 6cm days) was rather substantial and you could not waste any of
it. So we spent some time getting the lighting right, making sure
everything else was just right, and so on. Often there was no chance to
re-take a shot because you would not know until several days later
whether the result was ok or not.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[langwadt@fonz.dk]

On 27 Apr., 14:55, Spehro Pefhany <speffS...@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat>
wrote:

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:56:18 +1000, the renowned John Tserkezis

j...@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> wrote:
Don McKenzie wrote:

Sony announced on April 23rd that they will be discontinuing sales of
the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. The news marks a
major end to a nearly three decade history of the disk type that the
company helped to pioneer.

Someone forgot to tell microsoft.

The only way to load device drivers (drive interfaces, SCSI drivers
etc) when installing windows is via the drive at A:.  And that's your
only option.

My latest machine lacks floppy support on the motherboard (Asus P6T
WS). They suggest using a USB flash drive or USB floppy for RAID
drivers.  

a few years ago when I got a stack of dell 1U servers they all had a
USB floppy drive in the box with manuals etc.

-Lasse

 

[SG1]

"John Tserkezis" <jt@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> wrote in message
news:4bd6c587$0$32019$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...

Stuart Longland wrote:

The only way to load device drivers (drive interfaces, SCSI drivers
etc) when installing windows is via the drive at A:. And that's your
only option.
Short of creating a magical alternate boot install CD/DVD for every new
model of box we get. Not looking forward to it.

Actually, rumour has it, this is not the case in the two latest
revisions of their OS. I say rumour as I have not ever tried
installing one of these latest creations -- the one Windows Vista
machine I used had it preloaded, and I've never touched Windows 7.

No idea about Vista, but have installed Win7 several times so far, and
yes, your only option is F6 to look at drive A:.

But yes, you make a valid point ... and I shall make a note to stock
up on 3.5" floppy disks while they're easily available, as some of the
ones I have at home are slowly decaying with age.

Indeed. I've never had much luck with the longevity of 3.5" disks.
They simply do not last. And, owning to the fact we don't use them too
often, (we get boxs with newfanged interfaces when we're least expecting
it) we grab the first disk that's been kicking around in cabinet here.
After we go through several bad ones, we throw them out to find there
are none left.

As I said, we can create a custom boot disk, this is very doable, but
we could have that box up and running in several minutes verses lots more.

Contrary to popular belief we DO have more important things to do than
screw around with installs that don't like to play with the other
children.

I have some disks from 1993 that are still readable. I have some from later
that are gibberish, reformat did not help them come back to life. Guess it
depends on the manufacturer.

 

[Joerg]

Mr.T wrote:

"Don McKenzie" <5V@2.5A> wrote in message
news:83m9q8FlphU1@mid.individual.net...
Sony to discontinue 3.5 inch floppy disk
April 24, 11:34 PMJapan Headlines ExaminerJoshua Williams

Sony announced on April 23rd that they will be discontinuing sales of
the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. The news marks a
major end to a nearly three decade history of the disk type that the
company helped to pioneer.

According to Sony, they introduced the 3.5 inch floppy disk size to the
world in 1981, and began sales within Japan in 1983. Sony had shipped
approximately 47 million disks within the country at its peak around the
year 2000, but that number had fallen to around 8.5 million by 2009,
Sankei News reported.



WOW, still 8.5 million sales in 2009 from one company alone! So far from
dead then.

Let's assume a retail price of 50c a pop. And that's a lot because that
is what I paid in the early 90's for top quality disks. This would be
$4.25 million in gross revenue. In the world of big corporations that
generates a long-stretched yawn, followed by the drop of the axe.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Joerg]

Stuart Longland wrote:

On Apr 27, 10:56 am, John Tserkezis
j...@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> wrote:
Don McKenzie wrote:
Sony announced on April 23rd that they will be discontinuing sales of
the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. The news marks a
major end to a nearly three decade history of the disk type that the
company helped to pioneer.
Someone forgot to tell microsoft.

The only way to load device drivers (drive interfaces, SCSI drivers
etc) when installing windows is via the drive at A:. And that's your
only option.

Short of creating a magical alternate boot install CD/DVD for every new
model of box we get. Not looking forward to it.

Actually, rumour has it, this is not the case in the two latest
revisions of their OS. I say rumour as I have not ever tried
installing one of these latest creations -- the one Windows Vista
machine I used had it preloaded, and I've never touched Windows 7.

But yes, you make a valid point ... and I shall make a note to stock
up on 3.5" floppy disks while they're easily available, as some of the
ones I have at home are slowly decaying with age.

Interesting. What's decaying about them? I've got Fuji MF2HD from the
90's and they still work fine.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[F Murtz]

Don McKenzie wrote:

Sony to discontinue 3.5 inch floppy disk
April 24, 11:34 PMJapan Headlines ExaminerJoshua Williams

Sony announced on April 23rd that they will be discontinuing sales of
the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. The news marks a
major end to a nearly three decade history of the disk type that the
company helped to pioneer.

According to Sony, they introduced the 3.5 inch floppy disk size to the
world in 1981, and began sales within Japan in 1983. Sony had shipped
approximately 47 million disks within the country at its peak around the
year 2000, but that number had fallen to around 8.5 million by 2009,
Sankei News reported.

No wonder the sales have fallen, I have not seen any for sale for a year
or so in any of the big chains or even computer markets.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16352-Japan-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m4d24-Sony-to-discontinue-35-inch-floppy-disk-in-Japan


Cheers Don...

 

[atec7 7]

F Murtz wrote:

Don McKenzie wrote:

Sony to discontinue 3.5 inch floppy disk
April 24, 11:34 PMJapan Headlines ExaminerJoshua Williams

Sony announced on April 23rd that they will be discontinuing sales of
the classic 3.5 inch floppy disk in Japan in 2011. The news marks a
major end to a nearly three decade history of the disk type that the
company helped to pioneer.

According to Sony, they introduced the 3.5 inch floppy disk size to the
world in 1981, and began sales within Japan in 1983. Sony had shipped
approximately 47 million disks within the country at its peak around the
year 2000, but that number had fallen to around 8.5 million by 2009,
Sankei News reported.

No wonder the sales have fallen, I have not seen any for sale for a year
or so in any of the big chains or even computer markets.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16352-Japan-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m4d24-Sony-to-discontinue-35-inch-floppy-disk-in-Japan



Cheers Don...




They are still around but the usb stick far out sells them

 

[Magnum]

"atec7 7" <""atec77\"@ hotmail.com"> wrote in message
news:hr8v8b$962$1@news.eternal-september.org...

They are still around but the usb stick far out sells them

Hardly surprising because Sneakernet with a floppy = 1.4Mb.

Sneakernet with a USB stick = several Gb.

 

[atec7 7]

Magnum wrote:

"atec7 7" <""atec77\"@ hotmail.com"> wrote in message
news:hr8v8b$962$1@news.eternal-september.org...
They are still around but the usb stick far out sells them

Hardly surprising because Sneakernet with a floppy = 1.4Mb.

Sneakernet with a USB stick = several Gb.


Tell that to any older machine that wont usb boot or certain version of

winblows if it needs sata or other drivers on install

 

[George Neuner]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:13:11 +1000, "SG1" <lostitall@the.races> wrote:

I have some disks from 1993 that are still readable. I have some from later
that are gibberish, reformat did not help them come back to life. Guess it
depends on the manufacturer.

You can *sometimes* revive old diskettes with media level tools like
SpinRite ... but diskettes gradually lose their magnetic media (the
head touches them) so it depends on how much has been lost. Even if
the diskette appears unreadable to the OS, IME you can usually recover
most of the data from it.

George

 

[George Neuner]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:55:51 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Stuart Longland wrote:
some of the [diskettes] I have at home are slowly decaying with age.

Interesting. What's decaying about them? I've got Fuji MF2HD from the
90's and they still work fine.

The media does not have high enough coercivity to retain magnetic
alignment indefinitely - given enough time it loses orientation and
your data simply fades away.
And unlike hard disks, diskette R/W heads actually touch the recording
surface and gradually wear away the media.

George

 

[larwe]

On Apr 26, 4:02 pm, Don McKenzie <5...@2.5A> wrote:

Sony to discontinue 3.5 inch floppy disk

HA!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm


The mystery of the mega-selling floppy disk
By Jason Palmer
BBC News

Sony has said it will stop making floppy disks, after nearly three
decades of manufacture. Yet millions of them are still being bought
every year. But who is actually buying them?

Stack of floppy disks (Eyewire)
That's about one snap on a brand new digital camera

The floppy disk is the very symbol of storage; when you want to save a
file, you go looking for that little icon that looks like a floppy.

Every year another computer manufacturer stops putting floppy drives
in its machines, or a retailer stops selling the disks. Each time the
cry goes up that the death knell has been sounded for the floppy disk.

However, Verbatim, a UK manufacturer which makes more than a quarter
of the floppies sold in the UK, says it sells hundreds of thousands of
them a month. It sells millions more in Europe.

"We've been discussing the death of the floppy for 14 years, ever
since CD technology first started coming on strong," says Verbatim
spokesman Kevin Jefcoate.

Yet what was Sony's best-selling peripheral for its computers in
recent years? The 3.5-inch floppy disk drive that connects via a USB
cable.

Somewhere out there, the floppy disk is alive and well. But where?

Disk-credited

The truth is the 3˝-inch, 1.44 megabyte floppy - the disk that made it
big - has always defied logic. It's not floppy for a start. The term
was a hangover from its precursor, the 5ź-inch floppy, which had a
definite lack of rigidness about it. However, its smaller successor
held 15 times as much data.

But then along came the CD-ROM, and then the USB flash drive shamed
them both; the most voluminous USB stick - which could pass for a
keyring - can now hold nearly 90,000 floppies' worth of data.

"Old habits die hard, I guess... If you you don't do much in the way
of photography or music, then why would you change?
John Delaney, research director for IT analysts IDC

Sony signals end for floppy disks

One might be tempted to think that, like the vinyl enthusiasts who
insist music sounds "warmer" on a record, the floppy has its own fan
club. But unlike the case of vinyl, a digital format of a floppy is no
different than that found on your hard drive or USB stick.

Given their limited size and speed of data transfer, along with their
increasing obsolescence, it's harder to find a floppy fan club than it
is to find a laptop with a floppy drive built in.

But what about all the second-hand computers that are donated to the
developing world? Could they be even partly responsible for the
thousands of disks still sold?

Anja Ffrench of Computer Aid International - the largest charity
working to distribute recycled IT to Africa and South America - says
that they only deal in computers from 2002 and later, meaning that
they'll have the USB connection that obviates the need for floppies.

There are a few instances for which floppies remain the norm, like the
specialist, high-value technology that may rely on floppy drives for
data.

Saving grace

The vast desks that control the light shows and sounds settings in
theatres or music venues have until recently come with floppy drives
as standard; the English National Opera is just one example of an
organisation that uses them.
Mixing desk, Top of the Pops
One place you might find at least a few floppy disks

A volunteer at the National Museum of Computing says that many
scientific instruments - so-called dataloggers, oscilloscopes and the
like - record their data onto floppies.

This kind of expensive equipment is made to last, to be bought
infrequently - and these gadgets may call for at least a few floppies
in their lifetimes.

But these relatively niche uses couldn't possibly account for the
number of floppies - something like a million a month - that are being
consumed in the UK alone.

The answer may simply be that there are a great many old computers
that read only floppies, and a great many computer users that have no
need for the storage media that have supplanted them in other
quarters.

Rather than there being one industry propped up on the values of a
floppy, or a horde of enthusiasts buying up the world's supply, they
may simply be as much as many computer users need.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," said John Delaney, research director
for IT analysts IDC.

"If you've been using PCs for a long time and you don't do much in the
way of photography or music with them, then why would you change?

"There are people who ride technology for as long as it can be ridden
without falling over."

 

[Joerg]

George Neuner wrote:

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:55:51 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid
wrote:

Stuart Longland wrote:
some of the [diskettes] I have at home are slowly decaying with age.

Interesting. What's decaying about them? I've got Fuji MF2HD from the
90's and they still work fine.

The media does not have high enough coercivity to retain magnetic
alignment indefinitely - given enough time it loses orientation and
your data simply fades away.

Hmm, I have disks dating back to 1990 and none of them has ever lost
data or caused read errors. But some posters said that they still can
have lost writeability. No idea why.

I did always make sure to never buy disks from dubious sources but
always the good stuff, name brands.

And unlike hard disks, diskette R/W heads actually touch the recording
surface and gradually wear away the media.

Yes, and that wear is clearly visible. However, the typical disk is used
as file storage and only once in a while read back, and then only small
parts of it.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:49:10 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Yes, and that wear is clearly visible. However, the typical disk is used
as file storage and only once in a while read back, and then only small
parts of it.

I have an old HP logic analyzer that boots off of a floppy.

 

[Joerg]

atec7 7 > wrote:

Magnum wrote:
"atec7 7" <""atec77\"@ hotmail.com"> wrote in message
news:hr8v8b$962$1@news.eternal-september.org...
They are still around but the usb stick far out sells them

Hardly surprising because Sneakernet with a floppy = 1.4Mb.

Sneakernet with a USB stick = several Gb.


Tell that to any older machine that wont usb boot or certain version of
winblows if it needs sata or other drivers on install

Like this one:

http://www.cnczone.com/classifieds/data/4/large/2.jpg

I believe it is fairly young for a shop machine, mid 90's. There's stuff
out there that dates back to the days of 8" floppies.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[David Brown]

Doug McIntyre wrote:

John Tserkezis <jt@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> writes:
Spehro Pefhany wrote:
The only way to load device drivers (drive interfaces, SCSI drivers
etc) when installing windows is via the drive at A:. And that's your
only option.

My latest machine lacks floppy support on the motherboard (Asus P6T
WS). They suggest using a USB flash drive or USB floppy for RAID
drivers.

That's nice, but USB flash drives won't ever map to A: or B:. This is
done intentionally, and it makes perfect sense. But it doesn't help the
fact that Windows will not look at *any* other drive than A:.


I have a Flash Drive that mimics part of its space as a USB Floppy
that *does* map to drive A: or B:. Unfortunately it doesn't work very
well with most systems.


So, that leaves USB interfaced FDDs, or, as already suggested, creating
an alternative boot disk with the drivers included.

Of course this is all only just for WinXP (ie. that Windows release
from 8 years ago), or Server 2003 from 7 years ago..

Unfortunately, XP is still the best version of windows for many uses.
Lots of companies feel they don't have time to waste testing for
compatibility with Win 7, or finding drivers for it, or re-training
staff, or handling the support. It's better with the devil they know.
Besides, Win 7 has no advantages over XP if you are actually /using/ the
computer, rather than admiring the pretty clock on the desktop.

Vista & Win7/Server 2008 either release have methods to read in
RAID/HBA drivers off flash or USB devices during installation while
booted into WinPE. And its easy to make a new WinPE boot environment
with said drivers if needed.

I had to install windows (XP and Win 7) on a couple of computers
recently - it is often faster to install Windows from scratch than to
start using a typical "pre-installed" system (after it takes ages to
install windows from a hidden partition, you then have to waste more
time removing all traces of the "demo" and time-limited junk that comes
with system). While Win 7 installation is mildly improved over XP, it's
still seriously inefficient. And once you have the basic system
installed, you then have to find and install the drivers - which are
often totally absurd (I had to download a 100 MB file for an Ethernet
driver, including it's useless utilities - and it wouldn't even install
until I'd added dotnet runtimes!).

The Windows developers really should get hold of a few Linux
distributions to see how OS installers /should/ be made - they have a
decade or so catching up to do.

 

[Rod Speed]

larwe wrote:

On Apr 26, 4:02 pm, Don McKenzie <5...@2.5A> wrote:
Sony to discontinue 3.5 inch floppy disk

HA!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8646699.stm


The mystery of the mega-selling floppy disk
By Jason Palmer
BBC News

Sony has said it will stop making floppy disks, after nearly three
decades of manufacture. Yet millions of them are still being bought
every year. But who is actually buying them?

Stack of floppy disks (Eyewire)
That's about one snap on a brand new digital camera

The floppy disk is the very symbol of storage; when you want to save a
file, you go looking for that little icon that looks like a floppy.

Every year another computer manufacturer stops putting floppy drives
in its machines, or a retailer stops selling the disks. Each time the
cry goes up that the death knell has been sounded for the floppy disk.

However, Verbatim, a UK manufacturer which makes more than a quarter
of the floppies sold in the UK, says it sells hundreds of thousands of
them a month. It sells millions more in Europe.

"We've been discussing the death of the floppy for 14 years, ever
since CD technology first started coming on strong," says Verbatim
spokesman Kevin Jefcoate.

Yet what was Sony's best-selling peripheral for its computers in
recent years? The 3.5-inch floppy disk drive that connects via a USB
cable.

Somewhere out there, the floppy disk is alive and well. But where?

Disk-credited

The truth is the 3˝-inch, 1.44 megabyte floppy - the disk that made it
big - has always defied logic. It's not floppy for a start. The term
was a hangover from its precursor, the 5ź-inch floppy, which had a
definite lack of rigidness about it. However, its smaller successor
held 15 times as much data.

But then along came the CD-ROM, and then the USB flash drive shamed
them both; the most voluminous USB stick - which could pass for a
keyring - can now hold nearly 90,000 floppies' worth of data.

"Old habits die hard, I guess... If you you don't do much in the way
of photography or music, then why would you change?
John Delaney, research director for IT analysts IDC

Sony signals end for floppy disks

One might be tempted to think that, like the vinyl enthusiasts who
insist music sounds "warmer" on a record, the floppy has its own fan
club. But unlike the case of vinyl, a digital format of a floppy is no
different than that found on your hard drive or USB stick.

Given their limited size and speed of data transfer, along with their
increasing obsolescence, it's harder to find a floppy fan club than it
is to find a laptop with a floppy drive built in.

But what about all the second-hand computers that are donated to the
developing world? Could they be even partly responsible for the
thousands of disks still sold?

Anja Ffrench of Computer Aid International - the largest charity
working to distribute recycled IT to Africa and South America - says
that they only deal in computers from 2002 and later, meaning that
they'll have the USB connection that obviates the need for floppies.

There are a few instances for which floppies remain the norm, like the
specialist, high-value technology that may rely on floppy drives for
data.

Saving grace

The vast desks that control the light shows and sounds settings in
theatres or music venues have until recently come with floppy drives
as standard; the English National Opera is just one example of an
organisation that uses them.
Mixing desk, Top of the Pops
One place you might find at least a few floppy disks

A volunteer at the National Museum of Computing says that many
scientific instruments - so-called dataloggers, oscilloscopes and the
like - record their data onto floppies.

In fact sweet fuck all of them do.

This kind of expensive equipment is made to last, to be bought
infrequently - and these gadgets may call for at least a few floppies
in their lifetimes.

Pure fantasy.

But these relatively niche uses couldn't possibly account for the
number of floppies - something like a million a month - that are being
consumed in the UK alone.

The answer may simply be that there are a
great many old computers that read only floppies,

In fact sweet fuck all of them are actually used anymore.

and a great many computer users that have no need for the
storage media that have supplanted them in other quarters.

Even sillier.

Rather than there being one industry propped up on the values of a
floppy, or a horde of enthusiasts buying up the world's supply, they
may simply be as much as many computer users need.

Even sillier.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," said John Delaney, research director
for IT analysts IDC.

"If you've been using PCs for a long time and you don't do much in the
way of photography or music with them, then why would you change?

Because floppys are so unreliable, stupid.

"There are people who ride technology for as long as it can be ridden without falling over."

Doesnt happen with floppys that fall over all the time.

 

[Rod Speed]

George Neuner wrote:

On Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:55:51 -0700, Joerg <invalid@invalid.invalid
wrote:

Stuart Longland wrote:
some of the [diskettes] I have at home are slowly decaying with age.

Interesting. What's decaying about them? I've got Fuji MF2HD from the
90's and they still work fine.

The media does not have high enough coercivity to retain magnetic
alignment indefinitely - given enough time it loses orientation and
your data simply fades away.

Doesnt explain the claim that they can be read fine and the problem is with new writes.

And unlike hard disks, diskette R/W heads actually touch the recording
surface and gradually wear away the media.

See above.