tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post2099291224322204289..comments2024-03-28T23:57:50.103-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: The death of the floppy diskPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-36655963362219242602010-05-02T13:17:47.738-05:002010-05-02T13:17:47.738-05:00I have a couple of 5 1/4" drives and 3 of 4 3...I have a couple of 5 1/4" drives and 3 of 4 3.5" drives pulled from old machines before scrapping sitting ready in a box in the closet. Just in case I ever need them for old stuff.<br /><br />I first learned Cobol on a punch-card system about 1978, and worked on an IBM system that still used the 8" disks in the late 80s, but I don't have any examples of those in my collection of "junk".Stevenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-85747256250945467802010-05-02T06:16:18.755-05:002010-05-02T06:16:18.755-05:00At 29, I do remember using dual-5.25" floppy ...At 29, I do remember using dual-5.25" floppy drive computers and later their 3.5" cousins. I also remember learning to use a mouse for the first time when Macs came out.charlesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-41264253579521774882010-04-29T09:52:08.834-05:002010-04-29T09:52:08.834-05:00The last two machines that I've built didn'...The last two machines that I've built didn't have an option in their BIOS for a floppy drive.<br /><br />Floppies are far less fragile than one would suspect if they've been stored properly. I was playing around with a late model 1.2Mb 5 1/4 floppy and needed to check to see if it was installed properly. I grabbed a 360k disk from a pile of junk, tossed it in and opened it. The date was all intact and the files were dated from January of 1983.<br /><br />Even more interestingly they were from some long extinct word processing program, but opened up and were converted flawlessly by Office 2003.<br /><br />Try that with a Mac.<br /><br /><br />I suspect that a lot of people who get bit-rot on their floppies stored them in an attic or some other non-controlled environmentB.S. philosopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991238092700083612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-44040005012069503232010-04-28T20:26:34.945-05:002010-04-28T20:26:34.945-05:00The first version of the IBM 5.25 inch floppy was ...The first version of the IBM 5.25 inch floppy was formatted at 8 sectors per track instead of nine, so they had 8/9ths the capacity -- 160 Kbytes for single sided vs 180 Kbytes and 320 Kb double sided vs 360 Kb. Some people reformatted their disks for 10 sectors -- 40 whole kilobytes extra for a whopping 400 Kb! Reliability dropped from the floor to the basement.Shanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-8997306113027441172010-04-28T17:05:13.019-05:002010-04-28T17:05:13.019-05:00When I was a kid, we used floppy discs for our com...When I was a kid, we used floppy discs for our computer classes, believe it or not. And in high school, our district was so far behind that the idiots running the computers didn't relax the permissions for the CD drives, so anything I typed up at the library either had to be e-mailed to me (fat chance, with the stupid filters) or put on a floppy disk...which, luckily, my desktop computer could read.<br /><br />Oddly enough, out of the two of us, only my computer had a slot to read those things, unlike my mom's, despite the fact that we bought our PCs at the same time...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-13148275892481067352010-04-28T15:20:01.359-05:002010-04-28T15:20:01.359-05:00I remember the fun/frustration of trying to load p...I remember the fun/frustration of trying to load programs from cassette tapes on our old TI-86. When a friend got one of those huge 8" floppy drives, we thought it was the best thing in the world.<br /><br />Fortunately, I'm just young enough not to have been in the punch-card era.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11069374407966741962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-67360864032758537902010-04-28T13:46:47.523-05:002010-04-28T13:46:47.523-05:00I'm 23. Our first computer still accepted 5 1/...I'm 23. Our first computer still accepted 5 1/4 floppies, but they were on their way out when we bought it. I know my parents still have a few 3 1/2 diskettes stored in their garage, but given how fragile and unreliable diskettes are, I doubt any still work!Andrew Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09486716058377059434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-72524495733552994152010-04-28T11:47:03.281-05:002010-04-28T11:47:03.281-05:00I just looked up from my PC and noticed several bo...I just looked up from my PC and noticed several boxes of 8" diskettes from my computer fixin' days in the '70s. Next to them are several flip boxes of 5 1/4 diskettes and several versions of MS-DOS. Shift to the right and repeat again with 3 1/2" floppies.<br /><br />Guess I'll have some free space on that shelf.Crucishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15441911110953212619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-4596891237932040182010-04-28T08:12:58.895-05:002010-04-28T08:12:58.895-05:00Hmmm.....
I threw away my last paper tape program ...Hmmm.....<br />I threw away my last paper tape program less than 10 years ago.<br /><br />Dang, it looks like I'll finally have to upgrade my copy of Word 2.0: it installs from a diskette and the upgrade to Office 97 requires the diskette to be present in order to install properly. <br /><br />Have yet to fathom why I need anything else other than what O97 provides! At work we have O2008 and quite frankly it sucks. Big time!<br /><br />:)Noonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07694829378563989648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-11700891225790728232010-04-28T08:04:37.750-05:002010-04-28T08:04:37.750-05:00No sir, old would be if you had paper tape and pun...No sir, old would be if you had paper tape and punch cards. >:)<br />LittleRed1Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-35345490380302155182010-04-28T06:51:48.106-05:002010-04-28T06:51:48.106-05:00So...I hope OS installations upgrade to allow read...So...I hope OS installations upgrade to allow reading from a flash or CD/DVD drive when you're doing things like a RAID setup. I did that a couple years ago with XP, and it was a royal pain in the butt to A) find a disk, B) find a drive and C) get the right files on it to proceed with the installation. Fortunately, I had some drives in some junkers that I've never gotten around to discarding, and a neighbor had some old disks.Dirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04353273036394049597noreply@blogger.com