Do You Still Use or Keep Any Floppies?

As the years pass and technologies improve, it’s not uncommon to see a certain type of product go virtually extinct. Sometimes pieces of technologies get killed off well before their time (AGP, as an example), but other times, it’s hard to understand why anyone on earth would stick to using an old-school method of product when current products are so much better.

Floppy diskette, anyone?

When bringing up the word “floppy”, most people tend to associate it with 3.5″ diskettes that prefaced the CD-ROM. At their best, they could hold 2.88MB of space (most were 1.44MB), and unlike many of the storage mediums today, they were surprisingly durable. You had to of course take care with handling them, but it can be argued that it’s easier to kill or ruin data today (scratched disk, thumb drive gone through the wash, et cetera).

But let’s face it, 1.44MB on average per disk? Plus, these things take up a LOT of room if you have a stack of them. So how does one justify sticking to them rather than moving on up to something like a CD-ROM (equal to ~486 floppies) or a DVD (equal to ~3,125 floppies)? Well believe it or not, there are actually many out there who still rely on them on a day to day basis, and some of the reasons are a bit unconventional.

After news broke that Sony would be ceasing the manufacturing of its floppy disks, BBC queried its readers to see what they used floppies for, if they deal with them at all. Not so surprisingly, it seems that floppies are still the preferred method in many manufacturing industries, industries where pieces of equipment can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s easy to understand why companies wouldn’t want to upgrade simply because of the storage medium (especially since most data there can fit on a single floppy).

Others have very interesting uses, most of which don’t even have to do with using them in the typical manner. Many people have taken to using them to craft up items, from spatulas to coasters to fridge magnets and more. Some have even made outfits out of them, or decked out their car with them (image searches online will reveal a lot of these).

I am happy to admit that I haven’t touched a floppy disk in years, and I really, really don’t feel the need to ever touch one again. Even as of ten years ago I found the only use for a floppy was to update a BIOS, but today, vendors are usually pretty good on having Windows utilities to take care of the job. Do you use or still retain some floppy disks? Let us know in the thread!

Floppy disks are ideal “floppy table” stabilisers, whether in the dining room or on the patio. They are also good for wedges filling in gaps where wood has to be cut. I have also embossed them in a cement pathway in a splendid “talked about feature” as they are of no use whatsoever for storage.