Stop! Don't burn them - they are valuable!

[vaskidmark]

Even if there is no way to actually use them, they are now important historical artifacts of a bygone era.

SAVE THE FLOPPY!

Floppy Disk Era Ends as Sony Halts Sale of 3.5-Inchers in Japan
by Amar Toor — Apr 26th 2010 at 8:46AM

For the past few years, a beloved staple of our technological upbringing has been dying a slow, painful death before our very eyes. Now, one major company has taken it upon itself to pull the plug on its trademark floppy disk, effectively putting an end to the 3.5-inch era.

On April 23rd, Sony announced that it would begin phasing out the sale of its floppy disks in Japan, confirming that all sales within the country will come to a complete halt in March 2011. The decision comes a month after Sony discontinued the vast majority of its global floppies, although the company says it will continue to market the disks in a handful of niche countries, like India. According to the Examiner, Sony accounted for a full 40-percent of worldwide floppy disk sales in 2008, including 70-percent of the Japanese market. Recent years, however, have seen a steep decline in demand, as devices like USB sticks, CDs and DVDs have gradually encroached upon the floppy disk's once existent market hegemony. In 2000, for example, Sony sold 47 million disks in Japan alone. In 2009, though, it only managed to move 8.5 million -- which, if you think about it, is still a pretty impressive feat, considering that hardly any recently built computers actually support 3.5-inch disks.

We all knew, of course, that the floppy's death knell would eventually sound, and that we'd have to say our goodbyes at one point or another. Considering how rapidly the technological life expectancy has decreased in recent years, it's remarkable that the little guy managed to hang on for so long. Sony's announcement may simply affirm the inevitable, but it still leaves us feeling a bit wistful about an era that's now officially bygone. [From: Examiner; via: Geeoksystem]

stay safe.

skidmark

[PTK]

Nuts. I've been hoping there would be some sort of clearance event locally, as most of the computers I use still have 3.5" floppy drives, and many don't have USB ports. When they do, I just use a flash drive, but still...

I guess I'll have to make the 50 or so disks I currently have last.

[taurusowner]

I'm really curious as to why you seem to have multiple computers, but most of which are severely obsolete?

[PTK]

I'm really curious as to why you seem to have multiple computers, but most of which are severely obsolete?

Read how I phrased things. The computer I own and use is a relatively modern Sony VAIO laptop. Most of the computers I use are old, as I do work for anyone that needs help locally (the community here helps me out greatly, so I help them as well)

[taurusowner]

And they're using computers that have floppy drives and no USB?  Do you live in Honduras?  

I'm just amazed.  I haven't even seen a computer that uses a floppy drive, or seen floppy disks at a store in probably 5 years.

[PTK]

No, I live in Bozeman MT. People tend to make do with what they have, or do people where you live have huge amounts of money over and above a few bucks here and there for used/free PCs?

I see computers that use floppy disks basically every day - the library, stores, neighbors, etc. Why replace a computer if it works, right? Not everyone needs the latest and the greatest.

[bedlamite]

I'll have to order a few cases while they are still available. We have several hundred machines at work that I don't think will be able to use anything else.

[lee n. field]

Even if there is no way to actually use them, they are now important historical artifacts of a bygone era.

SAVE THE FLOPPY!

The only, only, thing I have used floppies for in the last few years is to load hard disk drivers during an install of Windows on funky hardware.  ("Press F6 to load....").  I've still got a box here I bought from the last time I needed it.  Hopefully it will last.  

They were never that reliable for backup, or for sneakernet.  Or, for goodness sake, of holding the only copy of a business accounting file passed around from person to person.  (Yes, I have seen this.  From when I had to rescue that file from a grfufled floppy.)

[red headed stranger]

As of a couple years ago, there were still A LOT of US government owned computers on Korean installations using floppy drives.  There were even a few local contractor jobs that specifically asked for experience with Windows 95!! 

[zahc]

I'm sure Sony is just discontinuing them because they can't fit a decent sized root kit on them anymore.

[Nick1911]

Here's a fun question:  When is the last time you bought 5.25" floppy disks?

Mine was around 2002.

[Harold Tuttle]

I needed 5.25s for a comp graphics class in 1985

I have a lead lined floppy transit valise at home

[Nick1911]

I have a lead lined floppy transit valise at home

Wow, were they radioactive floppy disks?   

[Harold Tuttle]

Jack Bauer didn't want the 800K of nookleer secrets erased by the Xrays

I also have xray proof film pouches

[AJ Dual]

Geez... last 5 1/4" I bought? It was probably 1990.

I don't remember buying any 3 1/2" disks after '94-'95... Although PC stuff I bought still came with them for drivers etc. maybe as late as 2000.

What I miss is soaking an entire box of Ohio blue-tip strike anywhere matches in acetone until the heads sloughed off. Mixing up the paste, and painting a carefully razored apart diskette with it, except for the one wedge that was visible through the disk window. Then carefully re-assembling it, and labeling it with something like "Playboy .GIF's" then leaving it somewhere at school...  

It never burst into jets of flame like the Anarchist's Cookbook claimed it would, but it did smoke nicely.

Wiring up a model rocket ignitior taped to the fuse of a small colored smoke bomb to an RS-232 port and putting a .BAT file called "SMOKER.BAT" that read:

echo off
dir > com1
smoker.bat

That really created an impression.

[RoadKingLarry]

Well, at least I can still get cassette tapes to use on my tape drive for my Commodore 64.

[Jim147]

I can't remember buying any 5.25's but I did notice last weekend that I still have two drives and a stack of old games and a few drivers on 5.25's.

I also found three LS-120 drives and four new discs.

I even pulled out an old SCSI card and hooked up a Scanjet and a Jaz drive to my shop computer. (Three new Jaz cartridges.)

I only have two systems around here that don't have floppy drives in them. And I have USB drives I can hook to those if needed. But I don't remember the last time I used a floppy.

jim

[Myself]

Just wait till people figure out you can't use a memory stick as a coster.  Floppies will return!

[Bogie]

Secretaries and bureaucracies will ensure that they remain in use... Lots of folks just don't get it.

[Devonai]

I believe I last used 5.25" floppies in 1986 to play Escape From Rungistan on an Apple IIE.

[230RN]

Jeeze, I've got a crapload of both types.  Even 360KB 5 1/4"-ers I've been aiming to donate to the dumpster.

I just threw away a bunch of 3.5" and 5.25" drives along with their MFM cards.

I will say that one of my old machines came in handy when someone needed some info off some old 5.25" disks about three years ago.  

[AJ Dual]

Jeeze, I've got a crapload of both types.  Even 360KB 5 1/4"-ers I've been aiming to donate to the dumpster.

I just threw away a bunch of 3.5" and 5.25" drives along with their MFM cards.

I will say that one of my old machines came in handy when someone needed some info off some old 5.25" disks about three years ago.  

I'm surprised they worked. Bit-rot and all...

Anyone ever have a stack of 8" floppies? Mine were from a defunct DEC PDP-10. I had fun giving them to people who asked for software etc on 5 1/4" but did not have any other disks at the moment to compare to, and weren't savvy enough to know right away. They'd look at the disk a bit suspiciously, shake it off and thank me...

Then, a few hours later they'd call me up: "HEYYYYYYY!  "

[crt360]

Anyone ever have a stack of 8" floppies? Mine were from a defunct DEC PDP-10. I had fun giving them to people who asked for software etc on 5 1/4" but did not have any other disks at the moment to compare to, and weren't savvy enough to know right away. They'd look at the disk a bit suspiciously, shake it off and thank me...

Then, a few hours later they'd call me up: "HEYYYYYYY!  "

That's just mean.  :D

My home PC still has a combo 3.5"/5.25" drive.  Sweet, huh?

I have dozens of poorly labeled floppies containing data that may never again be read, due to a combination of my considerable impatience with them and the fact that about 1 in 3 seem to have crapped themselves.

[BReilley]

Well, I still possess an original copy of Wasteland on 5.25" floppies...(for an Apple II, which I do not possess)
And the last pieces of software I actually installed from 3.5" disks would be either Elite II: Frontier or Harpoon.

Vive la floppy!  The best games ever written came on such media, and you all know it :)

[RaspberrySurprise]

I have one or two 5.25" floppies around here that are supposed to have a program on them for making DnD 2e encounters or some such.