OT: Goodbye 3.5 floppy disk

[dash]

Sony to stop selling them in Japan in 2011...

After 30 years on the market, Sony is finally retiring 3.5-inch floppy disks for good.

And with only 1.44 MB of storage, they're not likely to make a retro comeback.

Sony announced it will stop selling the plastic storage disks in Japan by March 2011 due to dwindling demand.

Floppy disks have long since gone out of favour worldwide, with new computers opting for USB flash drives and CD/DVD burners.

The disks still sell surprisingly well in Japan. According to Sankei News, Sony sold 8.5 million 3.5-inch floppies in 2009. However, that's down from 47 million in 2000.

While Japan, which accounts for 70% of all floppy disk sales, will be able to buy the disks until March 2011, Sony pulled the plug worldwide in March 2009.

“The 3.5-inch floppy has delighted giggling schoolboys with its name ever since its invention back in 1981 and subsequent Japanese launch two years later. Now it joins the cassette tape and the 8-track in fondly remembered obscurity,” wrote Charlie Sorrel on Wired.com.

The 3.5-inch floppy disk still serves as the icon for “save” in most computer programs.

 

[puckhead]

“The 3.5-inch floppy has delighted giggling schoolboys with its name ever since its invention back in 1981 [/I]

pffft... back in my day we had 5 1/4" floppies.


/wait, what?

 

[dare2be]

I remember all of these:

 

[buffhockey]

I also remember those 8" IBM floppy disks and 9 track tapes like this:

stacks & stacks & stacks of tapes...

 

[forty_three]

Just last night, I was cleaning out some old files and found some samples of Blaster, Melissa and ILOVEYOU virii on floppy. Since I am taking some classes on reverse engineering I thought "Cool, I can look at these".


Then I realized I don't own a machine with a floppy drive. Seriously, 6 machines in my house. Not ONE has a floppy drive.

 

[Rossinole]

How else will people from the early-mid 90s obtain free AOL trials??

 

[MM213]

I still have an unopened pack of Xerox 5 1/4"
Wish I saved some of those 8-inchers

 

[Destroydacre]

Never liked the 3.5 floppy disks. They're not floppy!!!! 1.44 megs, lol.

On the other hand, it was funny to turn on write protection and then watch someone who knew zero about computers try and figure out what was wrong.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Hmmm... looks like I will have to transfer "Oregon Trail" to CD...

 

[naslundfan19]

Hmmm... looks like I will have to transfer "Oregon Trail" to CD...

Oh, wow does that take me back! The green screen school library game!

 

[Dacks]

Never liked the 3.5 floppy disks. They're not floppy!!!! 1.44 megs, lol.

On the other hand, it was funny to turn on write protection and then watch someone who knew zero about computers try and figure out what was wrong.

Classic prank.

I have no idea why these are still being sold though. I lived in Japan for a year and they were the most technologically advanced society I had ever seen.

 

[HamiltonsDropped]

Never liked the 3.5 floppy disks. They're not floppy!!!! 1.44 megs, lol.

On the other hand, it was funny to turn on write protection and then watch someone who knew zero about computers try and figure out what was wrong.

Just like there was once TV without remote controls, communication without internet, Facebook and MySpace, music was stored on vinyl discs and photos on photo paper...

... there was a time that 1.44MB was a pretty decent amount of storage.

 

[beantownmaniac]

I remember reel to reel......sigh:p

 

[dare2be]

I remember reel to reel......sigh

I not only remember them, but I used them on a daily basis 15 years ago in my old job at Mellon Bank...they came in multiple sizes:

But who needs reel tape when you have punchcards???

 

[MM213]

How about these?

My first college project was written in FORTRAN77. And a girl at computer center dropped my stack of punchcards. So she just put them in in random order. Did I mention she was blonde? And cute too. Good old times

 

[MM213]

But who needs reel tape when you have punchcards???

Man, you just beat me to it

 

[dare2be]

How about these?
My first college project was written in FORTRAN77. And a girl at computer center dropped my stack of punchcards. So she just put them in in random order. Did I mention she was blonde? And cute too. Good old times

Did she leave you hanging, Chad?




That was bad.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

I rememebr buying "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" and it had like 5 of these. I thought it had to be the coolest game ever to have that many discs. Then I bought Space Quest 4, and it had 7.....oh man.....

 

[forty_three]

Just like there was once TV without remote controls, communication without internet, Facebook and MySpace, music was stored on vinyl discs and photos on photo paper...

... there was a time that 1.44MB was a pretty decent amount of storage.

I remember when Microsoft released Windows NT. And the company I worked for chose the "Floppy disk" option.

There were like 70 of them. What a pain in the ass to install.

I'm glad they are gone. Too Dangerous.

 

[davnlaguna]

At my work we have dozen of machines that have no floppy drive, but the program running on them stores all the data to a floppy. Since the company that owns the program charges 10k to sell the new program for each instrument we bought external floppy drives. We load the data to floppy then transfer to cd. With floppys going the way of the 8 track, we will reformat as long as the discs will take then bite the bullet