jameswade’s blog

I remember back in the day when to load a game onto your Commodore Amiga you required floppy disks. You never thought for a second that there was any other reasonably cheap way to store the data. Then CD-ROMs, hard drives suddenly became a lot cheaper and very versatile. This almost marked the end for floppy disks, apart from the fact they still used to transfer files from computer to computer.

Then arrived the USB and flash memory generation, now almost everybody has a USB flash drive. The reason why they easily replaced floppy disks is because: they are universal - can be used in almost any computer with a USB port; they don’t easily damage - no more corruptions due to magnetic fields; they hold MUCH more data - welcome to the age of the mp3; they are smaller - far easier to carry around with you; they work out cheaper in the long run - by the time you have finished buying enough floppy disks and replacing them it does work out cheaper.

We’re at the point now where new computers don’t even come with floppy disk drives, however they do come with USB sockets.
So what now for the floppy disk, as it no longer really has a place in the future of computers, so here’s some ideas:

“Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver…”

If you’re similar with the Microsoft Windows installation process you will have seen this message numerous times, and if you have had the pleasure of having to use it to install a SATA drive, then you will realise you NEED a floppy disk to put your motherboard SATA drivers on.

You require the drivers on a floppy disk all RAID/SCSI/SATA hardware unless Microsoft kindly bundled it with their operating system installation disc. It seems that Intel have experienced this issue too many times to mention.

I hope Microsoft fix this in Windows Vista installation.

How to make a starship enterprise out of an old floppy disk

This is a fantastic idea.

Bonnie has offered us a method of creating a starship enterprise (from star trek) out of an old floppy disk.

This should keep the kids out of trouble for an hour right?

Create a floppy disk drive RAID

Ultimately this is a geek idea, but its crazy enough to work.

Th idea is that you get a bunch of USB floppy disk drives, plug them into a USB hub, put a floppy disk in each one, then use your operating system to create a software USB FDD RAID.

A guide on how to achieve this using Apple MAC OS X is provided by Danial Blade Olson, entitled USB Floppy Disk Drive RAID.

Floppy Disk Coasters

Well you may look like a geek when you invite your friends around for a dinner party, but who cares right?

Here’s how to make one:

“Any computer programmer will be familiar with the utilisation of the humble floppy disk to hold their caffeinated beverages as they program deep into the night. However, through over-usage the floppy disk coaster will rapidly deteriorate into a mere shadow of its former self. To protect them, a cover of sticky-back plastic, or laminate, may be applied. A base of felt can also be used to prevent coaster-to-desk slippage.” Source

Make a desk tidy from old floppy disks
Microsoft have really out done themselves here. It seems one of their writers for their website has come up with an ingenious way to make use of those old floppy disks, and that is to make a desk tidy!

See: Make a useful pen caddy out of old disks

Make a Bird Feeder out of floppy disks

Although i’m not aware of how to do this, i’ve found a book that does, its called: Computer Waiting Games, and you can get it from Amazon.

All I could find was this: Building a Basic Birdbox but once you take a look, it becomes a little obvious how to achieve it.

Create a floppy disk bag

I thought this was possibly the best idea yet, a stylish bag made from floppy disks, its a geeks dream!

Check out the floppy disk bag photos.

Create a floppy disk mosaic

You need plenty of different coloured floppy disks for your pallet, but the results are fantastic.

Take a look at this one, 728 floppy disks

Sell them on ebay

I had a look on ebay, and there’s a whole section dedicated to floppy disks. The problem is that nobody seems to buy any on there. Seems to me like this is an absolute last resort.

Also see: http://www.theepiczone.com/floppy.htm