That's only feasible when working with particularly old operating systems.
(or Linux)
Nevermind that DOS won't have the right filesystem support.
I've got some DOS boot disks with support for NTFS and other file systems. I've had to use them in the past to deal with some pretty nasty hard disk problems.
I've got a whole box of assorted DOS boot disks for various purposes.
My problem with floppies is that they don't seem to age well... I've had I don't know how many dos boot disks that would boot fine when made, and then when I'd go back to them a year or two later, they were completely useless. My experience with floppies is shelf-life is the lowest of any media I've encountered.
Floppies actually do last a long time if properly cased and kept at suitable humidity and temperature levels. Older media (which most floppies are by now) may prove unreliable for data/software storage, but a full format should effectively "refresh" it into a more reliable condition ready to transfer files between machines. The biggest reliability concern is actually the drives.
That said, storing them in a 0-percent-relative-humidity, 0-degree-celcius room would cause some damage, as would 70 percent at 80 degrees.
I've got a never-opened pack of high density 5.25" floppies. FujiFilm responded to my email...they will indeed honour the lifetime warranty should the disks prove to be faulty. The replacement media would be DVDs, though.
I never used Linux. I still do it all with the trusty old DOS startup disks.
I've found that the main advantage of floppy disks is just about anything with a floppy drive will boot from one with no trouble unlike CD's, ZIP disks, flash drives, DVD's, etc.
I've formatted some really ugly hard disks, made computers over 20 years old boot from CD's, and transferred contents from the master drive to another all with floppy DOS.Show Image(http://geekhack.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=11578&stc=1&d=1278285087)
Some of my MS-DOS disks.
My problem with floppies is that they don't seem to age well... I've had I don't know how many dos boot disks that would boot fine when made, and then when I'd go back to them a year or two later, they were completely useless. My experience with floppies is shelf-life is the lowest of any media I've encountered.
I don't have Lemmings, but I have plenty of games on floppy disks. I've got Railroad Tycoon, Sim City, Mario Bros., Monopoly, and a bunch of others. I also have the screensaver with the flying toasters on a floppy, along with Wordperfect 7 (missing a disk though), MS-DOS 6.0, Windows 3.1, El-fish, and plenty of other old software.
If you want a copy of any of my old software, let me know. I'll be happy to get it off the floppies and send it to people.
Ok, I used Macronis Migrate Easy (has a clone utility). Unfortunately due to the fact that powering down the system to install the new disk changed the date/time data, the trial was invalidated. So it was either try to find a way to circumvent the trial software's limitations, email or call macronis and try to plead my case to them (this really is something they should consider and make not of in the software; by following their instructions precisely you reset your clock and as a result, if you try to run the software again it auto-expires; not exactly planning ahead), or cough up $50 for the full version. Anyway, I went ahead, took a BIG gulp, and bought the software for $49.99. I just hope my wife doesn't find it on the statement until I get my next paycheck.
Once installed, Macronis Migrate Easy worked flawlessly. I was back on my old setup on the new disk in about 20 minutes.
Now my biggest concern is relocating my music to the newly freed 80GB drive and pointing all the paths to the right place... that might take some time. Anyway, thanks for the advice and product recommendations. Migrate Easy is recommended (for a single use, the trial would be perfect! Just CORRECT your DATE/TIME *AFTER* installing the new disk, and *BEFORE* running the software...
The drive is damn quiet compared to the one it replaced (that IBM had single-handedly taken my computer from the nice soothing fan hum it has now to a jet engine accelerating for takeoff). I'd really wished i'd measured the sound output and made a comparison recording for you to all hear the difference. All this time I was blaming it on a fan in the power supply! (the only one I hadn't taken apart, cleaned, and lubricated). Cheers to geekhack!
I've got a pile of old HDDs, DVD drives, CDROMs, memory, etc... stuff that "works" but has been phased out for one reason or another. I plan on putting this drive in that pile for now. It's very likely that the pile will be put up for sale / trade here in the classifieds VERY soon. Its about time I made some room in here and got rid of some clutter.
Nope, shipping it would be more than it's worth to me anyway... I'll repurpose it somehow, even if it's using the magnet to hold my kids to the fridge. I mean umm... to hold their homework and art and stuff to the fridge. I'd never leave a child hanging from a fridge by a magnet (for long).
Just out of curiosity, how much would it cost to ship to Canada?
umm when I was going through the boot order settings in cmos, I found a utility that gives current processor temperature. mine was at 123F... I'm no expert, but that's a little too warm for me to be, say, using it, right?
Typically the unit used when talking about CPU temps is Celcius, which would put you at 50 degrees...quite acceptable.
However, I've watched systems power off due to overheat right in front of me with the temperature figure being 20 degrees off from maximum operating temp by specs...some of the sensors aren't terribly accurate.
I found that the "arctic silver" was flaked and worthless. wiped it off and cleaned up the surface of the heat-sink and chip fastidiously. Put some generic thermal paste I had in a drawer on and smoothed it out nice... now I'm running within spec (according to the mobo monitor). I also found that quite a few of my other settings were wacky too! The FSB speed was wrong, the chip detected was entirely the wrong speed, etc. I've since addressed those issues as well. I bet my clock resetting problem mentioned above and these cmos irregularities share a common source........ dead cmos battery. DOH! I'll be picking one up tomorrow :D