Floppy Disk Drives & IDE Optical Drives - Still needed?

[Big.Wayne]

Hi,

I'm just about to start a batch of new computer builds and I'm wondering if I should continue to install a Floppy Disk and IDE DVD-Burners as I have always done?

First the floppy drive, its something that a few people sneer at but I have always found them useful, mainly from an engineers 'diagnostic' point of view but the end user probably doesn't use it much. I've noticed that more stuff is now availble on bootable CD-Roms which is cool, however as far as WinXP is concerned a floppy disk is needed for stuff like SATA/NCQ drivers etc. Also for Flashing the motherboards BIOS I've always used a floppy although it seems on the newer boards (like the P5B series) its possible to flash directly from a USB thumb drive which is cool but I am still using older hardware that doesn't have this featyre. I'm aware that it is possible to 'slipstream' drivers into a new WinXP disk but that seems like a hassle to me when I can just pop in a floppy. Some people have said that they install a floppy temporarily for the initial set-up and software installation then remove the device once everything is nice.

I'm still not sure, for the price (few quid) they still seem worth having, what u think?

Second up, IDE Optical Drives (DVD-Burners etc), as they are just starting to appear in volume for sale I'm wondering if I should just include SATA-DVD Burners as standard, most the the motherboards I am using feature 4x SATA ports and at most I will be using 2x SATA hard disks so maybe the time has come to 'switch off' those IDE controllers now?

The SATA Optical drives are basically the same money, so if your a 'normal' user who doesn't have 8x Hard Disks and 4x DVD-Burners installed then I don't see a need for IDE anymore?

Your thoughts are appreciated

 

[masslac]

Floppy drives are only needed for SATA drivers when installing XP, whereas in Vista the SATA drivers are native.

There's no point you selling PCs with floppies, but I'd personally keep acouple lying around to help with said task.

 

[Craig321]

Floppy drives are only needed for SATA drivers when installing XP, whereas in Vista the SATA drivers are native.

There's no point you selling PCs with floppies, but I'd personally keep acouple lying around to help with said task.

Not all XP PCs need SATA drivers. Mine doesn't.

Also, maybe it's best if you leave floppies in for now, the people who receive the PC might want to boot from something other than hard drive for whatever reason & might not have a pen stick to boot from / might not want to/can't use a CD.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Not all XP PCs need SATA drivers. Mine doesn't.

I meant SATA-RAID and NCQ drivers kinda thing. For the extra cost of a few quid I kinda see no reason 'not' to include a floppy just was curious what others thought really, there are a few folk on here who would probably be offended to receive a PC with a old 'Legacy' device!

 

[skanky]

will a USB floppy drive work for things like sata/raid driver installs during windows setup?

 

[hp7909]

I meant SATA-RAID and NCQ drivers kinda thing. For the extra cost of a few quid I kinda see no reason 'not' to include a floppy just was curious what others thought really, there are a few folk on here who would probably be offended to receive a PC with a old 'Legacy' device!

Maybe something like this would be better/more practical? But IMHO I wouldn't bother including a floppy drive anymore.

Caution with SATA Optical driver. Read somewhere here that some mobos have 'issues' with some drives

 

[semi-pro waster]

hp7909 is right about the optical drives issue, you can't just assume that the motherboard will support them, most do now but some still have problems so you need to be sure the motherboard supports them before committing.

As to the floppy drive question, I'll probably include one in my next PC because they do come in handy (very) occasionally and given the overall cost of my intended PC it is literally a drop in the ocean. At the lower end however the cost of a floppy drive compared to how often it will be used may be more significant and in most cases it will be unnecessary.

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

will a USB floppy drive work for things like sata/raid driver installs during windows setup?

Generaly yes, normaly the BIOS will emulate it as a standard floppy so it'll work even if you're using a dos based boot disk.