# Is there something else I can put in a 3.5 floppy slot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027 "2005-03-05T03:52:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/21 "2005-03-06T03:04:07Z")
> [@SavageNarce](#): > > Beware the march of progress!! > > Despite the fact that this conjures up the image of some old geezer with wild eyes and scraggly hair ranting about the end of the world, it has a grain of truth. > > I spent considerable time in the early 80s putting a collection of folksong lyrics and chords into a standalone AES word processor. Easy to archive, easy to edit. > > Now all I need is a computer with a drive that will take an 8-inch floppy disk. :rolleyes: An 8-inch floppy?? Gee, I’ve never really seen one of those. Then again, the early 80s were more than 20 years ago, and I was still tooling around on a TRS-80 back then. 😃 I remember when our family got our first windows machine (a packard bell pentium-1 in early '96 with about a 1 gig hard drive…) we looked around a lot for an installable 5-1/4 floppy drive that would be compatible, since my father had a lot of files in boxes of five-quarters. If there was a point to this story, I’ve already gotten to it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/22 "2005-03-06T03:20:20Z")
Ah, but _we_ had it tough. EVer spend 30 minutes trying to get your tape recorder to work with your VIC-20 so you could save your Lunar Lander high scores? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/23 "2005-03-06T03:38:59Z")
Jeez, I remember backing up stuff to paper tape in high school. We were just starting to hear about kit computers like [this](http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~csclub/museum/items/mits_altair_8800.html) around that time. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/24 "2005-03-06T03:43:04Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > I do! > > I need to take daily backups of some important files on my computer and using zip disks is way faster and more convenient than burning CDs. I hate Zips with a passion. They have always been unreliable for me. I went through THREE zip drives in one year (1999) and decided never to use those pieces of crap again. I have lost so much data on Zip disks and have experienced the infamous “click of death” twice. The only mass storage device I had more problems with was Syquest. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/25 "2005-03-06T03:51:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I hate Zips with a passion. They have always been unreliable for me. I went through THREE zip drives in one year (1999) and decided never to use those pieces of crap again. I have lost so much data on Zip disks and have experienced the infamous “click of death” twice. The only mass storage device I had more problems with was Syquest. The “click of death” was enough to scare me off of zips and keep me on floppies until USB drives became cheap enough for me. I’ve never experienced one, but hearing about the phenomenon from so many different sources at so many different times was enough to make me leery of the technology. Plus, floppies have remained cheap. Cheap in both price and value, true, but if I lose one to shoddiness I’m not out more than a buck or so. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/26 "2005-03-06T05:27:34Z")
Lose the 3.5" floppy? I’m just now getting over the recent death of my 5.25" drive, I still need the 3.5" drive. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/27 "2005-03-06T06:24:06Z")
> [@SavageNarce](#): > > Beware the march of progress!! > > Despite the fact that this conjures up the image of some old geezer with wild eyes and scraggly hair ranting about the end of the world, it has a grain of truth. > > I spent considerable time in the early 80s putting a collection of folksong lyrics and chords into a standalone AES word processor. Easy to archive, easy to edit. > > Now all I need is a computer with a drive that will take an 8-inch floppy disk. :rolleyes: Check eBay. NASA still uses machines that have 8-inch floppy and that’s where they get their parts. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/28 "2005-03-06T07:11:17Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Check eBay. NASA still uses machines that have 8-inch floppy and that’s where they get their parts. And I bet they use the robotic arms also sold on eBay to change those gigantic floppies. 😉 In other news, am I the only one who fantasizes about pawing through some cast-off NASA junk? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/29 "2005-03-06T07:16:58Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > And I bet they use the robotic arms also sold on eBay to change those gigantic floppies. 😉 > > In other news, am I the only one who fantasizes about pawing through some cast-off NASA junk? Dude, you make a joke like that and you have to ask? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/30 "2005-03-06T07:19:31Z")
:d ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/31 "2005-03-06T07:21:44Z")
You know, I feel really stupid right now. One smilie. One emoticon I’ve been successfully using for the past few years now. TWO FREAKING CHARACTERS. And I manage to screw it up. I manage to SCREW it the FREAK UP. Don’t mind me. I’ll be over here playing with the pretty, pretty fractals in XaoS. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/32 "2005-03-06T09:50:16Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I hate Zips with a passion. They have always been unreliable for me. I went through THREE zip drives in one year (1999) and decided never to use those pieces of crap again. I have lost so much data on Zip disks and have experienced the infamous “click of death” twice. The only mass storage device I had more problems with was Syquest. What is the click of death? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/33 "2005-03-06T10:06:10Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > What is the click of death? 😕 From what I understand, it’s the sound the drive makes when the disk has physically failed and must be replaced. I don’t know if it’s possible to retrieve data off of a disk that has clicked its last, but it is certainly difficult. ---
**Author:** ![rewindforward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f19dbf/32.png) [@rewindforward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rewindforward)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/34 "2005-03-06T10:27:31Z")
I’m running an older comp with win me… and whenever I erase the hard drive, then it needs to boot off a floppy before it can install the windows os cd. Think it gets drivers from the floppy to be able to initialize the cd-rom otherwise it won’t be able to access the cd. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/35 "2005-03-06T15:22:21Z")
[The click of death.](http://grc.com/tip/codfaq1.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/36 "2005-03-06T15:50:01Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > does anyone use zip disks anymore? They’re still quite big in the music sampling arena. I’ve even got an old External 100mb parallel drive that I use at least once a week from when they first came out. As well as the 6 disks from the same time period. Never a failure yet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/37 "2005-03-06T17:34:10Z")
As I sit here using my girlfriend’s laptop (her _computer_, you pervs) there is a parallel-port zip-100 drive not eight inches to my right. I reinstalled the software for it on her machine yesterday, on the assumption that she’d gradually transfer off the contents of her ~30 zip disks using the wonders of modern CD-writer technology. At the time I bought the drive for her (used, at an auction of the assets of a failed computer graphics design company, circa 1995) she needed it for school projects and whatnot and even after she transfers her own files, occasionally a client will send material on a zip drive. Personally, I think we were all better off with punchcards. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/38 "2005-03-06T18:25:02Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > They’re still quite big in the music sampling arena. I’ve even got an old External 100mb parallel drive that I use at least once a week from when they first came out. As well as the 6 disks from the same time period. Never a failure yet. 🙂 According to the website on the Click of Death, it seems that the initial batches of Zip drives were okay until iOmega started slacking off on the quality. All I know is that every single Zip drive I’ve bought lasted me less than 6 months before breaking. Every single one (three, as I mentioned before.) Perhaps iOmega took noticed and improved later models? I don’t know. Or perhaps I am just incredibly unlucky. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/39 "2005-03-06T20:28:22Z")
> [@](#): > > You know, I feel really stupid right now. > > One smilie. One emoticon I’ve been successfully using for the past few years now. TWO FREAKING CHARACTERS. > > And I manage to screw it up. I manage to SCREW it the FREAK UP. > > Don’t mind me. I’ll be over here playing with the pretty, pretty fractals in XaoS. If a post consists entirely of a 😃 smiley, it’s considered ALL CAPS, and is switched to lowercase. This occurs before the smiley substitution, and after the lowercasing, it’s :d , no longer a valid smiley code. And most hard drives can fit into the same bay as a 3.5 floppy, so that’s probably the simplest and most useful thing to put in there. But you will need a new panel over that hole in the case. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027/40 "2005-03-06T21:33:25Z")
I could put another hard drive in there, but I’ve already got four IDE devices in there; and that’s all the motherboard can support. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-something-else-i-can-put-in-a-3-5-floppy-slot/293027.md?page=3)