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A ~5GB floppy disk actually sounds like a pretty useful thing at first, until you realize that you can get USB thumb drives that size almost for free these days
by shiroiushi 2y ago
A ~5GB floppy disk actually sounds like a pretty useful thing at first, until you realize that you can get USB thumb drives that size almost for free these days. At least the floppy disk would probably be a reasonably secure way to store data for decades, unlike the flash drive, as long as the disk (and the drive) were made with 1980s/early-90s quality and not late-1990s/2000s quality (floppy disks in the 80s were supremely reliable, whereas ones in the late 90s were hilariously unreliable).
- Dylan16807 2y agoIf you took some modern flash and ran it at half capacity by using 2 bits per cell, gratuitous error correction, and lots of spare blocks, I would expect it to store data for decades. But if we're positing reasonably-priced drives with that kind of tech, I would rather it actually be a tape drive. Let me get a 9TB tape for $40 or less, even if it's only useful for backups and video files.
- hinkley 2y agoThe lack of random access on tape is pretty bad. You have a lot more coping mechanisms for that these days but it’s still rough.
- Dylan16807 2y agoIt's slow but it's actually price-effective. A 7GB floppy gets crushed by a handful of $3 flash drives.