Here's something I meant to ask, is it just me or are floppies getting more and more unreliable? It seems like every third floopy I use goes belly up after 2-3 uses these days. I have even ripped out my floppy drive at home just in case I felt the desire to use it.

I've got one of these USB drives on my keyring, but I don't use it for transferring a great deal of files...I'm the same as Taw I tend to use zips, cds and ftp, they just make me feel a bit safer. The only thing I use it for is to carry around my CV and portfolio - its surprising how many times its come in handy - and when my boss gives me grief I know that I have my whole life on a keyring, so it gives me great pleasure in knowing I could wipe my work machine in seconds and there would be bugger all he could do about it Aaaah the power

I haven't bought a new blank floppie in ages. I've been recycling the ones I've had from two or three years back. No problems there except when I rathery cheaply tried to recycle a floppie sent to me by AOL or some other free software offer through the mails.

Fight Like Warlord

Nearly all the floppies I use are fonk too, Mustie, I'm glad it's not just me. I dispose of at least 1 in 3 and often more, yesterday I went through an entire box and got 1 to work, and I replaced the drive AND cleaned it to.

Eskie, I'm just being circumspect. I don't trust technology that's popular fashion, s'all. And I just prefer Zips and tapes, those are proper backup devices, not something that looks like it came out of a Corn Flakes box.

Ed, now that's cheap! - you KNOW that AOL stuff is free coasters/fribees/cat toys..

I did this superb pc a few weeks ago for this woman I know, talk about fast, it kicked ass, on pure performance it was better than my own. She went and put AOhelL on it. Now (oddly enough) 'tis nothing but a bag of sh*t. People will NEVER learn.

@Mustang, I noticed that too for ages. I thought it was me having reformatted some of the disks, then reformatted them back. Or I thought it might be due to the dampness of summers warping the disks or something.

AOL disks ... there is one use for them that I found to be extraordinarily fun. Skeet shooting. There's nothin so fun as launching an AOL disk into the air and shooting it! The problem is picking up the pieces once you're done. The pieces are sharp, but they're easy to see. Taw, I'm surprised you never picked up AOL shooting.

Did you know, if you whip a CD disk fast enough like a frisbee, it will actually lodge into walls, sometimes even wood.




Sir Spectre

How about a laugh. At work they back-up 2 main programs daily onto floppies. They have a set for each day of the week. It has not been replaced in over 6 months. I told them they need to replace them once a month to keep them reliable. If the data is coruped or lost, there would be heck to pay. But do they listen, nnnooooo. They could go to CD, they have a writer, but they won't. When they loose the data and need to restore, oh what fun that will be.

Michael "Finalday"
In Memory Of WLB

that surprises me not, fd. We have not a few customers whose entire client and animal lists are backed up not very fequently on the same floppy they've had for 10yrs. No amount of telling will prevail and when one stupid woman lost all hers and I told her it was all her own stupid fault (politely) she made an official complaint about me.

they are idiots. let them rot in the disaster of their own making (just make sure everyone knows you warned them in advance, then you can yuk it up afterwards)

Floppy disks have always been temperamental and unreliable. That is, compared to modern standards. Back in their day they had a great track record. Besides, because they are nowhere near as popular as they once were, only cheaper brands are available (at least here in Aus.). I keep warning the kiddies at the Uni I work for touse their network drives, but they don't listen. When a disk is stuffed, I refrain from saying "I told you so!"