Do you need a 3.5" floppy drive?

[apvm]

My friend is going to buy a new system but most of the computer stores including Dell system don't come with a floppy drive and is an option..he is wondering if there is still a need for one, our age group are used to a floppy since 5.25". He asked me if I still use mine....I came up with 2 programs...memtest and seatools for testing hard drives but both have bootable cd version (memtest have a USB key version as well) other than that I couldn't think of any and as a matter of fact, many of my floppy disks are no longer usable.

My question is do you still need to have a floppy drive? thanks.

[phuviano]

Nope, you don't need one. Unless your friend needs its for a specific reason.

I would say 3.5" floppy drives are pretty much obsolete now. I don't know any uses for a 3.5" in my daily life, and no one I know uses the 3.5" floppy drives either. CD drives have pretty much taken over floppy drives. You can do the exact same things with a CD, as you can with a floppy.

[Aske001]

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33466&vpn=SY%2DUSB%2DFDD&manufacture=Syba

[ShadowVlican]

haven't used one in what.. 4 years?

bootable CDs ftw

[TruE SkiLLS]

nope, havent used that for like... at least 6 years

[Digital_Domain]

Installing RAID drivers for Windows when booting off a RAID. Other than that, you don't need one these days.

[rabbit]

I got one of those combo floppy/memcard reader things when I bought my machine in 2006. I used it to install the AHCI drivers when installing XP, since I didn't know about nLite back then.

I still like having one, even though I may never use it.

[Junk Food Junkie]

I use mine occasionally as a quick backup for just e-mail addresses and bookmarks.

I keep a CD backup of everything and update that once in a while.

[Oversized Rooster]

I made sure to include a floppy drive in all my desktop machines.

If you're installing XP and you need to load a special driver, floppy is your friend. Also if you need to flash your video card, floppy is your friend.

I know some newer flashing progs now recognize USB keys but I never know where my USB key is and therefore the good old 3.5" floppy disk serves me with honor. :cheesygri