The Last Computer you had with a 3.5" Floppy

[duncyboy]

An Amiga 1200+

My first PC was inherited from my uncle and he kept back the floppy drive for his new PC and I never bothered buying a replacement.

When I got into PC building (about 2000 onwards) I never bothered putting a floppy drive in, had no use for them.

I've still got my box chock-full of Amiga games though, I'll never get rid of them- too many great memories

 

[72930]

I think another question would be... "when was the last time you 'used' a floppy?"

About 6 months ago. My grandfather's partner had a lot of data on her old PC, which was just replaced with a new Toshiba laptop. The old PC had no USB or FW, so we decided to transfer the data via floppies to another PC which had USB to transfer the data to the Toshiba. About 50 walks up and down the stairs later, we were done.

 

[zelmo]

1998 PowerMac G3 266 Desktop - [one of?] the last beige cases Apple used. We got a G4 iMac next, although we also got a USB floppy drive so my daughter could take schoolwork back and forth. Still have that floppy drive somewhere, probably in a box with my old Zip 100 and Syquest EZ135 drives.

That is also the only computer we've ever owned that didn't have a built-in display. Everything else was either an AIO or a laptop.

 

[dingster1]

I'm with Zwaler on this one,an old Gateway something or other that died recently. Actually it was my son's, he lucked out and was the first in the house to be Macatized with a 20" iMac.

 

[tersono]

Been a Mac user since '87, but picked up a Dell Optiplex box for work-related testing purposes back in around 2001. Still have it, actually, it's currently running SME Server...

 

[danny_w]

The laptop that I have for work is a Gateway, just out of warranty. And yes it has a floppy.

 

[-Alan-]

Up until I bought my first Mac (spring of 2006), I built my own computers. The only way to update the BIOS was to use a 3.5" floppy. So I figure the last one I built was in 2003.

 

[SkyBell]

One reason I'm glad I have my PC is because of its floppy drive. I regularly save small files and documents to floppy's, and my school is full of PC's with floppy drives, so it's a lot easier to take a floppy to school instead of my USB drive, and worry about losing it. I think floppy's will still be useful to me, for about two more years at the very least.

Anyway, the PC was bought in 2003, so that's what I put.

 

[Eric Lewis]

i dont remember much before 1998...when i got my bondi blue iMac

 

[zap2]

I said 2002-2004, but it might have been 2001. I know I used that PC until I got a Mac in late '04.


I have someone in my school come up to me one day and say "Hey, I found a floppy of yours" I was like "what, I haven't used those in years!"....it wasn't mine

 

[zap2]

I regularly save small files and documents to floppy's, and my school is full of PC's with floppy drives, so it's a lot easier to take a floppy to school instead of my USB drive, and worry about losing it.

Wow....I know USB flash drives aren't dirt cheap like a floppy, but their pretty cheap. Plus they a lot more secure.


I get that a floppy works for you, but its 2008, time to move on. Gotta push companies away from old stuff

 

[cbrain]

The PC I had with a floppy I got in December 2003.

 

[SkyBell]

Wow....I know USB flash drives aren't dirt cheap like a floppy, but their pretty cheap. Plus they a lot more secure.


I get that a floppy works for you, but its 2008, time to move on. Gotta push companies away from old stuff

I know they aren't very expensive, but I don't see the need to have a small USB drive I might use 10 times a year, when I already have a lot of floppys.

And just wondering, how are USB drives more secure?

 

[Royale w/cheese]

A 2.4ghz P4 Compaq Presario from '04 running xp. Was actually pretty well equipped for what it was, firewire, burner, card slot, almost every port you could want at the time, and then of course the 3.5" (which definitely did see some use) It just sits on top of a sawtooth now, but but besides the batteries, the thing still runs strong. I keep it around for in case I need to do something in windows. I just don't have the heart to bootcamp windows in my penryn pro. I still think that it is funny that 4 years later, I have another 2.4ghz machine (yeah, I know there is QUITE a difference)

 

[-Alan-]

And just wondering, how are USB drives more secure?

I'm sure there's a more technical reason. But for me it's easier to put in my pocket. Otherwise I'd have to staple the darn thing to the document I was working on. And after that the damn thing wouldn't work properly. Oh wait, I'm referring to 5 1/4 " floppys. Still....

 

[hvfsl]

I unfortunately still have to keep a floppy drive around because Windows XP and 2003 require one when installing, if you have a SATA or SCSI drive which those OS's don't have the drivers for.

Vista of course allows you to install those drivers from a flash drive, but then I have no use for Vista. At work it just creates more issues and has no real advantages over XP. At home, a lot of my hardware/software doesn't run as well as under XP.

 

[mkrishnan]

1997 was the last time I purchased one (Compaq Armada laptop). I briefly had my parents' extra desktop in my apartment around 2001-2003, which also had a floppy drive, but the next PC I purchased was an iBook G4 in 2003....

 

[zap2]

And just wondering, how are USB drives more secure?

I meant physicly, their safer

 

[sysiphus]

Well, in 2002 I bought my last new computer with a floppy drive, a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop. Which, by the way, was a lousy design--a desktop processor in a laptop is a terrible idea.
However, last week, I picked up a free Dell Precision workstation from about 2000 with dual Xeons (P3 based), a Zip 250 drive, a CD-ROM, 512mb of PC133 ECC(!) RAM, and...a floppy. It makes a good server now.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

I have to correct my original post. The last computer I had with a floppy was my Beige G3/300 DT from 1997. Phew I can't believe I made such an idiot mistake! Stupid!
Sorry to confuse you guys, I hope we're all still friends.

 

[mkrishnan]

Sorry to confuse you guys, I hope we're all still friends.

Not anymore, no!



I don't miss floppy disks. It was a good technology in its time, though. Believe it or not, I have actually seen them recently. There's one computer in our clinic that runs a cognitive screening task that can't be networked, and is too old for USB drives, and we actually at least were (last year) getting test scores off it in floppy.

 

[skunk]

Power Macintosh 7100/80

 

[iMpathetic]

The only computer I actually use with a floppy drive would be my Dell Inspiron 8000. Of course, I acquired it secondhand, if I bought it new, I'd have been five years old!

 

[timerollson]

2004...first college computer. It was a CompASS desktop with a CRT monitor. Eww.

 

[ReanimationLP]

-Looks at the front of his computer and sees Mr. Floppy-

I use floppies regularly for flashing BIOSes on mainboards and video cards.

Dont knock what works.

This is my custom built that is always changing.

I'll probably always have a floppy drive.