can we live without a floppy drive?

[scylla]

It seems most people say no, but with XP is it really necessary? Maybe it's time to let go.

[deddard]

Depends what you do. If you use apps such as Norton Ghost, then a floppy still comes in handy (you create a boot floppy, then either use it in an emergency with a ghost disk, or copy it to the ghost disk)
For most things they are now unnecessary.

[papertech]

When it comes to having options, I think more is better than less. I need and use my floppy drive regularly. Also, not everyone uses XP.

[Abbadon]

for now, I still put it in new systems I build, but I do see the end of the floppy nearing. Booting from USB-sticks will replace them in time, even for things like a Win98 startup-disk or Norton ghost. However, that won't be for tomorrow, and not for next week either.

And when things like this excist: http://www.overclockers.com/articles988/, seriously expanding on the floppy-drive's possibilities, I'm sure the good old 3.5s will be around for some years to come.

[Paul Komski]

Most of the time you can convert floppies to cds so that is one way to go and avoid using a floppy if you are running a modern version of windows on "normal hardware".

Floppies still have specfic value in the following areas:-
1) As boot managers (typically in a number of multiboot scenarios).
2) When installing WinXP/2K from an OEM/Retail CD and onto SCSI, RAID and many SATA hard drives you will need a FLOPPY containing the drivers which you access after pressing F6 when prompted - otherwish WinXP will not see the drive you are trying to install it onto.
3) To "get you in", to flash your BIOS and to run troubleshooting and diagnostic utilities when your CD is not accessible for whatever reason.