Death of the Floppy Disk

[mandy]

PC World, Britain’s largest chain of computer superstores, will say goodbye to floppy disks once the current stash is gone.

    The retailer said Wednesday it opted not to reorder any more disks because they do not hold enough data and better alternatives exist.

    PC World has about 10,000 disks in stock. With 155 stores across Britain and nearly 50 more elsewhere in Europe, spokesman Hamish Thompson said the final stock of floppies will be gone "in weeks, if not days."

    "It’s had a good, long and productive life, but really, it’s just too small to hold any real data," Thompson said of the disks. "It just doesn’t make sense any more."...

full article: http://business.bostonherald.com/technol...eid=180278

[FiberGuy]

Dayum!

I remember when I was giddy (yes, GIDDY) when they first came out with the 720K small floppy disk.  If memory serves, when I went to the next computer show, I snatched one up for about $70...  Yeeeee Haw! 

The nice thing about technology is when "reflecting", you don't have to admit you're getting old, you just convince yourself that technology is just changing so bloody fast! 

On that note, my current machine does NOT have a FDD, and neither will any future machines that we buy. 

Cheers

[DecorativeDishes]

HA Fiber! I can relate.

I remember having to save my spreadsheets in pieces. Columns A-G on one floppy...

There was NO hard drive  (no color monitor either). Kim

[Mojavelyn]

hey...

load "*",8,1
run

A whopping 64k, 1 mhz, daisy chained single sided 5.25" 1541 floppy drives!!! I even still have my flippy notcher.

I eventually upgraded from the C=64 to a 128D (128k, 2 mhz), to a 1571 floppy drive for doublesided disks, a 1531 floppy for 3.5" disks, a 900 bps modem to a 1200 bps modem.

That lasted me till the Pentium's came out.

Oh and I remember when the hard drives came out... 20 mg "you'll never fill it up." And what are we on now... 200 gig or so?

[regic]

And what are we on now... 200 gig or so?

I'm looking at servers.  The options are 160GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB.  The 750GB drive costs less than what I paid for a 400MB drive in the 90's.

[Mojavelyn]

We've come a long way in a short period of time!!!

[RiverRat]

I found some old 5-1/4s the other day when I was going thru some stuff. 

My first computer had an external tape deck that used cassettes to store info.  :blinkie:

And the next one, I had to 'trick' into to thinking it had a hard drive so I could save stuff.  Worked as long as the power didn't go out. 

That was back when to get online you dialed up the remote computer directly.  I'm showing my age now aren't I?  :blinkie: