High Speed Floppy Drives? 20
john asks: "I'm in a position where I may be "blessed" with the task of creating several hundred, even thousand, standard 1.44mb 3.5" floppy disks from a set of images. I'm curious if there exists a sort of "high speed" floppy drive available that would significantly speed up the time this process takes. Thanks!" Ouch! What about floppy copiers that are designed to copy floppies at high speed without the need for a computer?
make it SEP (Score:2)
Is it possible to buy a reliable floppy anymore? I've got pre-1990 floppies that are still readable, but brand new ones in the same drives seem to develop bad spots in hours.
why? (Score:1)
What a job.... (Score:3)
Assuming you still have to create these things yourself, there are several disk duplicators available that take a stack of floppy disks in through a magazine, automatically load the data, verify and spit 'em out.
Here are a couple I found on the web:copypro [msd1.com] makes a professional duplicator, and this [topsmate.com] is a cheaper model from Tops-Mate. I would also check magazines like Nuts and Volts. Once upon a time Computer Shopper was full ads for products like this as well, but it is just PC stuff anymore.
Re:why? (Score:2)
It doesn't have to.
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Re:why? (Score:1)
Re:why? (Score:1)
My old 486 couldn't even if it had a CD-ROM drive. I can install a lot of OSes over the network, but I need a floppy to get started.
Re:why? (Score:1)
Re:why? (Score:1)
Re:make it SEP (Score:2)
I find the formatting on pre-formatted disks just isn't up to spec anymore - they seem to be using some sort of high-speed formatter that doesn't leave a "deep" enough impression on the disk. Since I realised this and started doing a fresh low-level format on any "preformatted" disks I got, my error rate has gone down to the old levels....
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Disk duplication services (Score:1)
Re:LS120 (Score:1)
LS120 (Score:1)
Outsource (Score:1)
Re:why? (Score:1)
Use them to take data to work (and thus avoid the damn proxy server), move a copy of the network card module from one machine to another, backup my personal letters for safe keeping, move my presentation to the laptop without having to plug in the PCMCIA card, store almost any non-Windows card drivers in a compact format that can be put inside the manual and stored...I'm tired of typing, but could go on for days.
So if you want to move 1Mb of data to a machine that does not have network access, you burn a CD? That is incredibly wasteful. I bet you had a $70-per-cartridge WORM drive on your NeXT, right? There are still a lot of uses for floppy disks and a lot of devices that ONLY come with a floppy. I suppose the disposable camera crowd likes getting three CDROMS in the mail from AOL every month, but I don't. And I find even a trained hippo is smart enough to split a file over three floppies. I know a lot of people who use ZIP disks and when I look on the disk they have 4MB worth of files...what a waste.
Your speed argument makes little sense. True, CDROMS are faster. But I use the floppy medium like CDs--to store and move data. Not to run it. I can't use CDs for this either. They are too slow and as a RO device pretty silly. It takes me time to find a CD or floppy and load it in the drive, why not just sit tight while waiting a couple seconds for the data to copy off.
Re:make it SEP (Score:1)
They're talking about a low-level format, guy.
They're not that stable though. (Score:1)
The new one have lasted almost a year now, but I haven't used it half as much as the old one.
Re:make it SEP (Score:3)
Who sells pre-formatted EXT2 diskettes? What? How else would you format them? :/
Re:make it SEP (Score:1)
Hard drives are something else, of course
Re:why? (Score:1)
Re:make it SEP (Score:2)
You missed his Smiley (
a low level format used to be the default for floppies - still is if you use format a:
and of course he is correct - you can't buy preformatted EXT2 floppies, you would have to LLF them yourself (mind you, I tend to mount DOS floppies, can't be bothered to EXT2 format them)
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