29 Apr
2010
29 Apr
'10
4:27 a.m.
Jim MacKenzie wrote:
I still use floppies, even on modern systems. For
some applications,
they're more than big enough. I even installed a floppy drive into my
desktop a few months ago, so that I wouldn't have to use a USB floppy
drive.
I have both 5 1/4" and 3.5" HD floppy drives on my Pentium III system.
My newer core 2 quad running Windows XP also has a 3.5" HD floppy drive.
In both cases, the primary purpose is to run DOS so that I can run the
backup
program GHOST which must run under DOS. The version I use is able to
generate a text file listing every file in the backup image along with a
modify
date and a 32 bit CRC value. While that capability is limited to disk
partitions
which use a FAT32, the restriction does not seem to have been a problem
with Windows XP as far as I am concerned.
The newer system will also support a 5 1/4" floppy drive, but only one
floppy
drive at a time. If I find I need the 5 1/4" drive, I can always switch
while it
is needed. Originally, on the Pentium III system, I used the 5 1/4"
drive to
pass small files to the PDP-11/83 system running RT-11. I don't seem to
need that much any more, so the 5 1/4" floppy drive may stay in the box
for a long time.
On the other hand, about 3 years ago, a friend needed a copy of one of my
files. The file was small at around 1 MB, but hard media was essential.
Without a floppy drive, I had to make up a CD for the transfer. So there is
no doubt that some systems will get along without a floppy drive.
Jerome Fine