Death Knell Of The 3.5" Floppy Disk To Be Rung Soon [It Says Here]

[6Foot2]

Link: Sony delivers floppy disk's last rites | Business Tech - CNET News

[andy_nic]

I find myself needing a floppy disk sometimes, some machines are picky from what they will boot ghost on. But saying that bootable USB drives have replaced most my needs for one and only 30% of PC’s in the school has floppy disk drives. They were just another holder for a paper clips or bits of paper.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We have hardly any machine with floppy drives. We've only needed one twice. Once when I was messing with ghost booting, and once when a DT teacher passed me a digital camera and asked have you got a card reader for this, it was a Sony Mavica.

 

Oddly my Core2Quad pc does have one.

[john]

I still use a FDD as our Boxford DT Software needs one to install Wonder if they still use that with the latest version as I bet the one we have now won't be Windows 7 compatible

[andy_nic]

I still use a FDD as our Boxford DT Software needs one to install Wonder if they still use that with the latest version as I bet the one we have now won't be Windows 7 compatible

 

The new version of Boxford 2D design comes on a separate CD it’s a bit of a waste of a CD, I think FDD Boxford is compatible because I think I remember installing it on the image.

[john]

This isn't the 2D Design stuff, although we do have a FDD for that, this is the actual disk for the Boxford Software (something or other V10 it is), so we use two FDDs when we install it

[6Foot2]

There is always the option of the external USB FDD.

[elsiegee40]

I've only got 2 machine with 3.5" drives... I wonder how long it'll be before I can bare to throw out the boxes of disks in my room!

[glennda]

I don't recall seeing any of the machines here with floopy drives no even the oldest ones - but then again they don't have cd drives either so i guess they where either purchased without or removed!

[john]

There is always the option of the external USB FDD.

 

Thats exactly how I do it now as all our FDDs are just used as blanking plates tbh most are dead, full of sweety papers, lolly pop sticks etc

[mrbios]

got 1 USB floppy drive at our place, that's the only one in the entire school (possibly one in a really old teacher laptop that hasn't been replaced in years mind - you know the ones, the teacher that uses their laptop once a year maximum and forgets the have it)

 

i think the ONLY use i've had for it in my 4 years there was to take a licence key off an old version of 2D Design, which now remains on a share on the network

[K.C.Leblanc]

got 1 USB floppy drive at our place, that's the only one in the entire school (possibly one in a really old teacher laptop that hasn't been replaced in years mind - you know the ones, the teacher that uses their laptop once a year maximum and forgets the have it)

 

One of those RMs the size of a paving slab. I have one of those.

[mrbios]

One of those RMs the size of a paving slab. I have one of those.

 

Way back when i was still in school helping the then IT techs i got given one of those, managed to flog it for £80

[6Foot2]

Link: BBC News - 40 ways we still use floppy disks

[Cue]

They still make these things?

 

Way back when i was still in school helping the then IT techs i got given one of those, managed to flog it for £80

 

Only a single paving slab?

[6Foot2]

Link: Floppy Disk Kingpin Says Business Has About Four Years Before Hitting Eject Button | Tom's Hardware

 

The last new media was produced a decade ago, but some demand remains.

 

The floppy disk business will be toast in four more years, reckons the self-described “last man standing in the floppy disk business.” However, Tom Persky, Owner of US-based floppydisk.com, a site dedicated to servicing the last pockets of demand for diskettes, says the end is in sight.

 

Sony was the last diskette maker, ceasing production a decade ago, but Persky’s business has been ticking over on “a couple of million” floppy disks snapped up when production ended. Every now and then, Persky gets a chance to buy a few pallets full of unused floppies that firms find in the back of their warehouse. However, Floppydisk.com is currently on its last half a million diskettes, and they are an unquantified mix of 3.5-, 5.25- and 8-inch designs and a few less common formats. As an aside, Persky says that he also recycles floppy disks – rather than see them going to landfill - and gets up to 1,000 disks a day in the mail. These are tested, guaranteed, and sold at $19.95 for a pack of 50.

 

You might be curious who still needs floppy disks in 2022. The answer is wide-ranging, with a diverse clientele still eating up these computer consumables regularly. Some of the biggest floppy disk orders come from industrial firms, as well as avionics, healthcare, and embroidery. All these customers have something in common; they use serviceable, good working order machinery that is perhaps 20+ years old and use a floppy drive to save and load data. Incidentally, the Japanese government has only just decided to phase out the required filing of certain official documents on floppies and CDs.

[6Foot2]

Link: Japan will no longer require floppy disks for submitting some official documents

 

Japan is an innovative country that leads the way on many technological fronts. But the wheels of bureaucracy often turn incredibly slowly there. So much so, that the government still requires businesses to provide information on floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they submit certain official documents.

 

That's starting to change. Back in 2022, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. "Under the current law, there are many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods," METI said last week, according to The Register.

 

After this calendar year, METI will no longer require businesses to submit data on floppy disks under 34 ordinances. The same goes for CD-ROMs when it comes to an unspecified number of procedures. There's still quite some way to go before businesses can stop using either format entirely, however.

 

Kono's staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require the likes of floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even MiniDiscs. The physical media requirements even applied to key industries such as utility suppliers, mining operations and aircraft and weapons manufacturers.

 

There are a couple of main reasons why there's a push to stop using floppy disks, as SoraNews24 points out. One major factor is that floppy disks can be hard to come by. Sony, the last major manufacturer, stopped selling them in 2011. Another is that some data types just won't fit on a floppy disk. A single photo can easily be larger than the format's 1.4MB storage capacity.

 

There are some other industries that still rely on floppy disks. Some older planes need them for avionics, as do and some aging medical devices. It also took the US government until 2019 to stop using floppy disks to coordinate nuclear weapon launches.

[Dos_Box]

I may just invest in a slim USB CD drive. Just for future retro gaming. Not many new PC cases come with slots for them these days!

[Oaktech]

Worth noting that Netac do a USB stick with a switch on it that makes it identify to bios and windows as a usb fdd drive...

[Dos_Box]

Do you have a link? That could be very handy for many.

[6Foot2]

Link: Japan will no longer require floppy disks for submitting some official documents

 

Link: Japan's digital minister claims victory against floppy disks • The Register

 

Japan's digital minister, Taro Kono, confirmed that the Japanese government has finally rid itself of floppy disks.

 

"We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!" digital minister Taro Kono told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

Kono pledged in 2022 to eliminate law requiring floppy disks and CD-ROMs when sending data to the Japanese government. However, the decommissioning of the relic took another year and a half to be announced.

 

As of a few weeks ago, Japan's Digital Agency had removed 1,034 regulations that governed their use, leaving only one that was related to vehicle recycling.

 

Although it may seem futuristic in some respects, Japan still has a penchant for old tech, and not just floppy disks. Items like cash payments and fax machines complicate its reputation as well as its desires to lead in the tech sphere...