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flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,321
3,003
Anybody still have or use a Zip Drive? A lot more capacity than a floppy. Mine is in my box of old computer stuff in my closet.

Lou
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
Anybody still have or use a Zip Drive? A lot more capacity than a floppy. Mine is in my box of old computer stuff in my closet.

Lou

Yep, I have 4 of them... Somewhere in the attic.. w/old SCSI cards & SCSI Drives. I even have SCSI CD ROM drives. All working well when removed, packed away, and plastic wrap sealed.
 
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Gravydog316

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2016
564
200
Canada
if anyone wants old stuff for cheap, lemme know LOL
(3 iMacs, G4, MBP, iPod, iPad, CD burner, usb floppy drive & some floppies, scanner, games, MacUser shareware cdroms, blank dvd's/cds... )
trying to spring clean! & will $$$ for textbooks again ugh
 
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TimothyR734

macrumors 68030
Apr 10, 2018
2,723
2,753
Logsden Oregon
if anyone wants old stuff for cheap, lemme know LOL
(3 iMacs, G4, MBP, iPod, iPad, CD burner, usb floppy drive & some floppies, scanner, games, MacUser shareware cdroms, blank dvd's/cds... )
trying to spring clean! & will $$$ for textbooks again ugh
What kind of iMacs do you have and what year :)
 

Gravydog316

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2016
564
200
Canada
What kind of iMacs do you have and what year :)
iMac G3 - Summer 2000 - model M5521
1$_57.JPG
= = = = =
iMac G5 - model A1058
cis932.jpg
= = = = =
iMac G5 model A1195
$_57.JPG
= = = = =
iMac 23" 2017 model 18,1
10750105.jpg
(just got last week)

= = = == = =
& PowerMac G4 model M8493
0.JPG
 
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Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
I had to buy a USB floppy drive to recover some files last year. It didn't work with a new Mac but maybe it was the adapter. Zip drives still work with macOS and PCs but have problems. You can't format with Disk Utility. On Windows side the Zip drive doesn't mount automatically, you have to manually do it.
 

mixel

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2006
1,730
976
Leeds, UK
My Zip drive still works. Used to use it to transfer data between my Amiga and my PC.

I’d be hard pressed to find files small enough to put on floppies though, whaaa? Text files? A single iphone photo doesn’t fit on a floppy, a single mp3 doesn’t fit on a floppy.. And even if it did, I wouldn’t want anything on them? When they could be.. not on them? Like, on hdd/backed up to a single place?
Perplexing!
 
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aevan

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2015
4,537
7,235
Serbia
Zip drives were bad.
I quit using those along time ago.
They had the click of death issue.


Please don’t take this as a negative comment, but I’m genuinely interested what you need floppy drives for. I mean, you could transfer a whole warehouse of floppies on a small usb stick - so it’s surely not for backup. It must be something where you need floppy drives on a regular basis so I would really like to know what that could be. I respect your refusal to explain, but I would really like to know! :)
 

aevan

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2015
4,537
7,235
Serbia
I still save office docs on them.

But.... why? Why not on a usb drive? Forget the capacity, it’s much more reliable. And floppy drives are slower, louder, have way smaller capacities - unless it’s a nostalgic thing, there is literally no reason to use them in this day and age.

I mean, it’s your choice, ofc - you do you. But just wanting to make sure you know all the benefits of something a bit more modern. Again - up to you. And floppy disks are certainly cool :) Ah, this thread brings back memories :)
 
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Clix Pix

macrumors Core
Also they are less likely to be stolen since some people do not know what they are these days.

I really hope that you also are storing/protecting your important files on at least one or two more current devices as well! Using floppies is really rather obsolete. It is important to keep up with current technology so that data doesn't get lost because there is no way to retrieve it. A few years ago I realized that I would need to move some of my files from a few older external drives that I had which had only Firewire. I bought the appropriate adapter and spent some time transferring files from those older drives to a current one using USB 3 and that way I know I have access to those files with my current computers and as time goes on and ports change again, will once more transfer everything. Actually right now even as I type I"m transferring some files from a smaller-capacity USB 3 drive to a larger one and am using my 2018 MBP so have the appropriate USB-C cables on the drives.
 

nollimac

macrumors 6502
Oct 10, 2013
433
35
I was surprised that one can still buy floppies...even more surprised one can find USB floppy drives...long live floppies!
 
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