The Floppy is Dead: Time to Move Memories to the Cloud

[pstokely]

Source: PC Magazine

Sony's decision to end 3.5-inch disk production is just another signal that local storage media and platforms cannot be trusted with your precious data.

The history of data storage and backup is littered with the corpses of dead formats. Seven years ago I wrote about the beginning of the end of 3.5-inch floppy disks. At the time, it was still a popular portable storage medium, and I was derided as a heretic. Now, Sony has finally decided to stop making 3.5-inch floppy disks, which pretty much marks the end of the format.

It's worth noting the demise of any popular format because it has a ripple effect on the technology world. In 2003, when Dell decided to stop putting 3.5-inch floppy drives in its computers, we were already seeing the proliferation and use of USB drives. Back then, they had capacities that, while many times greater than the best floppy disk, were still miles away from where they are now (these days, it's not unusual to carry around a 4-GB USB drive).

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20100426/tc_zd/250362

---

Don't think I've used a floppy disk since at least 2003 at the latest. Stop using them regularly over 10 years ago when I started using Zip disks and CD-Rs

[pkdu]

1. Me too , on all points ...surprised anyone is still using , let alone

selling them.

[brooklynite]

17. They always made great coasters...

[JCMach1]

2. DVD's will be dead in 5 years or less...

[pstokely]

4. maybe even Blu-Ray (depending on net-neutrality)

waiting for a Blu-Ray by Netflix can be faster than downloading 40 Gigs

[Initech]

3. It's been forever since I last used a floppy. Flash drives and CD-Rs.

[divineorder]

16. My pc still has a floppy

I hardly ever use it since most documents are at least 1-2 mb, but I still store gifs and jpegs and midis (that's an idea for my old midis-they're small enough). However, these days, the smallest things I normally use are CD-roms at 700Mb. I have an 8GB Flash drive, a 12 gig mp3, and a 250 GB external storage, with a37 GB hard drive. (I know I should upgrade my memory, but cash is a little short these days).

What gets me about thse format changes is that there doesn't seem to be transitional electronics to help people transfer old to new. I had a Smith Corona disk drive: I had a lot of writing on it I can't retrieve because there is nothing I can plug it into to at least get the information out. Same with a lot of those 5 inch floppies: nothing there.

Secondly, I don't trust the cloud. Big computer banks can crash or be damaged too. Give me my external hard drive that doesn't require a subscription payment to maintain and that I can carry around when I move.

[pstokely]

18. Could try putting a 5 inch floppy drive in a drive enclosure?

?

[Webster Green]

5. Cracks me up when I see people trying to sell zip drives on craigslist.

I think I would rather have a floppy.

[Gore1FL]

6. I remember in college ..

I had DOS 2.0, Turbo Pascal 2.0, and 2 semester's worth of programming on a double sided 5.25" Disk.

[Bozita]

7. I remember buying a paper punch and converting those single-sided 5.25" floppies ...

... into double-sided.

Life was good.

[Gore1FL]

14. I recollect that too!

That was he only way to get double sided use on the Apple. (I had an apple II c for a while, my dad had an apple 2, an Apple 2e and and apple 2gs before going to Mac.) I went to MS in college and never looked back.

[Romulox]

8. Floppy disks were "popular" in 2003? That's a bit of revisionist history for ya. nt

[chatterboy]

10. Remember the first iMac?

No floppy drive in 1998, and Steve Jobs was derided (by, among others, Michael Dell) for "ruining" Apple.

I remember building a magazine on a Mac using Zips. It took 23 Zips to make the mag. The computer's hard drive was a whopping 2 gigs -- huge and expensive. Now it's a $10 thumb drive.

[Romulox]

12. Unfortunately, the PC I built around 2003 required a floppy drive to load Serial ATA drivers

Before that, I hadn't included a floppy drive in my builds going back at least as far as 1998 myself. The zip (and jazz) drives ruled the day.

I'm typing this message on a circa 2009 Imac with 1 TB hd, 16 gb thumb drive plugged into a usb hub, and a 4 gb micro sd card sticking out the side of it. We've now got more storage than stuff. I want to move to 100% solid state storage next.

[onehandle]

9. Steve Jobs killed the floppy by introducing the floppyless iMacs in 1998.

I think I got my first flash drive around 2001 or so.

I honestly didn't know anyone still used floppy disks.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Nah, the growth in file sizes thanks to larger hard drives killed the floppy

along with CD recorders. Apple not including a floppy drive on the Mac was a symptom, not a cause; Apple has never had the market share to affect the market in a serious way.

[kamel2190]

11. I wouldn't put ANY money

on new media that doesn't end up with the consumer having a physical copy of their files. There are some online backup websites, but they're not doing nearly as well as the portable hard drive/usb business! Plus c'mon, would you really trust some centralized socialist data storage!? :argh:

[Snazzy]

15. I still use floppies

but just to fix old sometimes ancient machines to do stuff like flash bios on various parts (which seem to still like that technique).

The fully functional early powerbook I found in the trash must have some purpose (yet to figure out). I was in awe of that machine when it came out but couldn't get anyone to buy me one. Took me about 8 dusty floppies to find one that was still good enough to transfer stuff. (yea yea, rip it open and solid state).

Anyway, landfill bad so I have a museum going.

[blogslut]

19. That first sentence is simple bullshit

The demise of the 3.5 inch floppy has no relevance on the reliability of local storage media. After all, virtual storage may be virtual to the end user but servers that store the data are oh so very tangible.

The trick is to make backups on sticks, on hard drives, on disks and upload to online storage services. One should never rely on one source for their backups and/or important data.