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Liquidity X · Dec 26, 2002, 02:39 AM

Ok I bought a floppy off of ebay to use with the pcs at school. It reads disk fine, a bit sow but it reads em. But I can't seem to rename em, and when I go to formate em in disk utility, it erases em, but then doesnlt inizalize and remount em. any ideas? is there something I'm mising? thanx.

OpenStep · Dec 26, 2002, 02:42 AM

Someone I do work for has an iBook 500 with a USB floppy and it is extremely slow. He has a Sony Mavica camera so he has to use a floppy, but it takes a good 5-6 mins to copy the contents of a full disc onto the hard drive. I guess you aren't the only one that has to deal wiht slow read access on floppies.

Liquidity X · Dec 26, 2002, 02:51 AM

yah i know that, but i can't even rename em or formate em, thats my main problem.

Avon · Dec 26, 2002, 11:20 AM

Floppies on Mac OS X blow goats. I have had to copy a powerpoint presentation to a floppy with a powerbook becasue the only only thing it had was a VST floppy drive. Oh my, was it slow.

In all reality, floppies do suck and one should try to use CDs at all cost.

As far as the foppies, cd burners are cheap now. you can pick one up for less than 100 bucks. I picked up a lite-on 40 speed burner form my brother. Works great and I even found it localy at a CompUSA repakaged as a "bus link" (75 bucks). Check www.xlr8yourmac.com

---------
Can people PLEASE stop buying thoes dam Sony Floppy cameras??!!! They are so horrible! Im not much of a fan of Sony products. The propriatary memory stick is a huge turn off. Having to go back to them for memory and being ripped off again sucks.

Seriously try to persuade your friend into ditching the Sony and getting a Compact Flash based camera.

Liquidity X · Dec 26, 2002, 11:52 AM

yha i know man, i have a 42x burner. Its just that in the prgraming class all we have are floppies and CDROMS, no zip ro burners, and i'm sick of emails my work to myself. I got a great floppy for 28 bucks, graphite n all to match my system, i just wanan be able to rename my floppies which I can't seem to do in X. and posibke reformate em. as mac and pc formates.

OpenStep · Dec 26, 2002, 12:45 PM

\Can people PLEASE stop buying thoes dam Sony Floppy cameras??!!! They are so horrible! Im not much of a fan of Sony products. The propriatary memory stick is a huge turn off. Having to go back to them for memory and being ripped off again sucks.

Seriously try to persuade your friend into ditching the Sony and getting a Compact Flash based camera. [/B]

He recently bought a Nikon Coolpix that has usb and he uses it with iPhoto (BTW it's a great camera, nice design too). The Sony hes had since his PowerBook G3/233. He is a foot surgeon and spends time overseas so I guess the cheap floppy film is the main reason he still uses the Mavica.

mikerally · Dec 26, 2002, 01:06 PM

My VST USB Floppy Drive works great with Mac OS X, it even has a floppy disk icon when I mount disks on the desktop, I am able to format them as Macintosh and MS-DOS disks, and rename them.

The only problem that I have, is that it *IS* slow, very slow - the same drive operates much much faster in Mac OS 9.

That's the only drawback I have.

It's this and the lack of any floppy disk support on the Beige Macs (without having to install a 3rd party driver) that makes floppy use in Mac OS X suck.

Finally, I find the performance of Zip disks much slower too, although not as slow as the floppy disk performance.

xyber233 · Dec 26, 2002, 01:22 PM

I have a terrible SuperDisk drive. It is slow but everything works fine including renaming and formatting.

Eug · 01:37 PM

Zip drives work pretty well in X for sub-1 MB files for me. Some people have issues with larger files though.

Liquidity X · Dec 26, 2002, 01:53 PM

hmm i wonder whats with mine. is a smart disk floppy USB,

Avon · Dec 26, 2002, 02:05 PM

Originally posted by Liquidity X:
i just wanan be able to rename my floppies which I can't seem to do in X. and posibke reformate em. as mac and pc formates.

Sorry, can't help. Same problem here. I format them on a PC when I need pc disks and I format them on an old 6100 when I need Mac Disks.

Liquidity X · Dec 26, 2002, 10:52 PM

Oh ok good, so I know its not just my system. I'll call one of my buddies @ Apple tomorrow and see whats up.

mbryda · Dec 26, 2002, 11:19 PM

Also happens with USB Flash drives... I have both a floppy and a 64MB USB flash drive and all are very slow on OSX on both my iMac and the wife's iBook. However, once you get them to a Windows PC they fly...Sounds like Apple has some dud USB Mass storage code floating around OSX...

psu03bob · Dec 27, 2002, 12:59 AM

I have a USB Imation Superdrive that has given me problems since 10.0. If a Kernel Panic occurs while the drive was in use the drive would no longer function (after rebooting) in OS 10. The only way I could get it working again was to reinstall OS 10. Recently in 10.2 the drive caused the computer to stop responding and I was forced to restart the computer, and the drive was no longer recogned. I am away from my Mac at the moment so can't look up to be sure but I belive that the Apple System Profiler lists the USB port as empty (even thought he drive is plugged in, and I have tried both the keyboard and root hub). I am planning on getting a new computer with a CD burner after Macworld in January, so haven't really put too much effort into get the drive working again. Anybody know how to get my drive working again, without reinstalling the OS?

brainchild2b · Dec 27, 2002, 01:34 AM

STOP USING FLOPPIES. FIND ANOTHER WAY. FTP FILES OR SOMETHING. FLOPPIES ARE EVIL. EVIL. EVIL.

Everytime you use a Floppy God kills a kitten :-)

Liquidity X · Mar 30, 2003, 08:59 PM

OMG I JUST realized what I was doing wrong

was trying to formate at HFS + and forgot u need othave agig open to do that

foppies work fine for me now

OMG i just spaced on that soooo bad.

CharlesS · Mar 30, 2003, 09:11 PM

I have the following problem with floppies: If I have a floppy drive (tried both Imation SuperDisk and YEData 2x) connected to my G4 450/DP via a USB hub, the system sometimes doesn't ever wake from sleep, causing me to have to power cycle it. Disconnecting the floppy drive from the hub solves the problem. Anyone else ever have this happen with a dual processor machine?

chu-ka-pi · Mar 31, 2003, 04:10 AM

Same problem here. Not with a dual processor
system but with a Powerbook 867.

The question is : why on earth is it sooooo
slow! Does anybody have some info about it?

Not that this is a real problem for me though...
I now have a DSL connection and don't use
my floppy drive anymore! :-D

Tyre MacAdmin · Mar 31, 2003, 04:43 AM

My zip drive on my DP 533 is deadly slow... I can burn a disc faster sometimes than copy a zip!

Appleman · Mar 31, 2003, 05:16 AM

Apple declared the floppy dead.

Period.

nbnz · Mar 31, 2003, 05:27 AM

Originally posted by Appleman:
Apple declared the floppy dead.

Period.

Yeah they declared it dead as in they don't include drives anymore, but they can't stop supporting the people that do use them, how many millions of people still use floppy disks? And why do Apple keep selling USB Floppy drives? There is no excuse for the slowness of Zips & Floppys

mitchell_pgh · Mar 31, 2003, 09:46 AM

I understand that there are some legacy things that we need to keep around just for the "unknown factor". But floppy drives are D-E-A-D and many people on the PC side just haven't come to that realization. I sell computers on a regular basis, and the first question everyone asks is "does it come with a floppy drive"

Customer: "Does this come with a floppy drive"
Me: "No, but it does come with a DVD Burner and a space for two batteries..."
Customer: "But I thought you said this was a good computer..."
Me: "Ugh..."

In my mind, floppy drives are about as advanced as cassette tapes.

Liquidity X · Mar 31, 2003, 09:51 AM

yah they r dead i agree, but i needed one to be able to transfer VB files from my mac w/ VPC to the PC programing lab, casue all they have for media ar CDROM and floppy

but tis nice to hav JUST incase.

mactechie · Mar 31, 2003, 10:48 AM

Hi,

I use a LaCie Floppy drive. No issues. However, I find that you get the best results if you use the Mac OS X Disk Utility application to fromat the disks first of all. Using other utilities gives poor results. I've never had any issues (goes for most media), even if I format it as DOS.

Hope this helps

CharlesS · Mar 31, 2003, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
I understand that there are some legacy things that we need to keep around just for the "unknown factor". But floppy drives are D-E-A-D and many people on the PC side just haven't come to that realization. I sell computers on a regular basis, and the first question everyone asks is "does it come with a floppy drive"

Customer: "Does this come with a floppy drive"
Me: "No, but it does come with a DVD Burner and a space for two batteries..."
Customer: "But I thought you said this was a good computer..."
Me: "Ugh..."

In my mind, floppy drives are about as advanced as cassette tapes.

If you want to be contentious about it, fine. But the fact is that Mac OS X comes with built-in drivers for USB floppy drives, and thus support for said drives is a feature. If a feature in your software has a bug, you should look at fixing it. If connecting a floppy drive to my Mac makes my Mac crash when I try to wake it from sleep, it is not a valid excuse to just say "floppy drives are dead."

Besides, say a switcher wants to use a floppy drive, because he/she is used to having one, and then has all sorts of lockups on wake. The user probably won't connect that to the floppy drive being connected, and will just think Mac OS X is an unstable OS (which it is, with a floppy drive connected, in my experience anyway). Not good PR.

coolmacdude · Mar 31, 2003, 09:09 PM

Since you have .Mac you could use your iDisk to transfer files. I do this all the time, and it is obviously much faster than floppies. Just upload them to the idisk on the PC and download them on your Mac.

Liquidity X · Mar 31, 2003, 10:08 PM

would if i could, god damn porxie at the school, had alot of hack attacks so they locked EVERYTHING down, it sux.

Pierre B. · Apr 1, 2003, 04:22 AM

Originally posted by OpenStep:
Someone I do work for has an iBook 500 with a USB floppy and it is extremely slow. He has a Sony Mavica camera so he has to use a floppy, but it takes a good 5-6 mins to copy the contents of a full disc onto the hard drive.

I think it's time for a FireWire floppy!

edddeduck · Apr 1, 2003, 09:53 AM

The point is Apple has drawn the line and well done too..

The difference is why don't we support apple serial bus technology as well? Serial and Apple Talk too (on there original formats).

The fact is the floppy has died if you need a floppy external companies have support. There are only so many engineers at Apple and Apple has decided it would be a waste of resources to get floppys working fully.

I agree although some people use floppys they are VERY SLOW AND UNRELIABLE. CD's are cheaper and with a capacity of 1.4Mb they cannot store much.

At some point you have to cut support in this case I agree with Apple its not worth it.

Cheers Edwin

mactechie · Apr 1, 2003, 10:12 AM

At work I use a Yano ancient USB floppy drive, at home a LaCie floppy drive. No they are not fast, no they don't hold a lot of information. Do they do their job?
YES, YES YES. If you have a problem with your floppy drive, get in touch with the manufacturer. There is no problem with the driver support Apple provide, Me thinks Apple have done their part. It's a little unjust to blame Apple when some other company makes cr** which doesn't work as it should. If a drive causes a kernal panic, the drive's no good, get rid of it!
If the drivers were no good, why do mine work?

Tip: use Disk Utility and nothing else for formatting!

Useless thought for the day:
I guess it's Apple fault Quark isn't ready!!!

CharlesS · Apr 1, 2003, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by mactechie:
At work I use a Yano ancient USB floppy drive, at home a LaCie floppy drive. No they are not fast, no they don't hold a lot of information. Do they do their job?
YES, YES YES. If you have a problem with your floppy drive, get in touch with the manufacturer. There is no problem with the driver support Apple provide, Me thinks Apple have done their part. It's a little unjust to blame Apple when some other company makes cr** which doesn't work as it should. If a drive causes a kernal panic, the drive's no good, get rid of it!
If the drivers were no good, why do mine work?

Beats me. I've tried two vastly different floppy drives in my machine, and when either of them is connected, my Mac sometimes doesn't wake from sleep. I think it's pretty clearly a bug in the floppy driver somewhere as any other type of USB device works fine.

[APi]TheMan · Apr 1, 2003, 02:06 PM

Originally posted by nbnz:
Yeah they declared it dead as in they don't include drives anymore, but they can't stop supporting the people that do use them, how many millions of people still use floppy disks?

Ever since I tossed my Performa 6200 in 1999 I haven't had a need for a floppy unless I was dealing with an older system (like rebuilding an old PowerMac).

I got my Blue and White G4 450 in the summer of 1999, almost four years ago and I've never looked back for floppies. Even now with my Pismo I don't have a need for floppies.

Floppy drives are dead.

but they can't stop supporting the people that do use them, how many millions of people still use floppy disks?

How many millions of people bought the first Bondi iMac? Apple doesn't support them on OSX... Apple began phasing out floppies FOUR years ago, time to start getting over them, guys.

If all you have to do is use a floppy every ONCE in a while, then boot into OS9 for a quick second. Jeesh.

nobitacu · Apr 1, 2003, 06:32 PM

Blah! floopys are so back in the days. Not many people here that I know of still uses Floopy.

Ming

andycroll · Apr 2, 2003, 03:43 AM

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Blah! floopys are so back in the days. Not many people here that I know of still uses Floopy.

Even Dell have finally caught up!

Andy

mactechie · Apr 2, 2003, 05:17 AM

Eventually, I guess that there could be a conflict between the floppy drivers and a piece of 3rd party software installed. Easy to verify: Do a safe boot, with the floppy connected, set the unit to sleep for an extended period of time, and see if it wakes up afterwards.
I guess that you have elimated other variables which could cause the problems. I've come across such issues with a number of USB Hubs for example.

Have you heard of Power Manager 2? This is the protocol used in Macs to control power consumption across the board. Any hardware which doesn't comply with PM 2 commonly cause such issues. (usually a hardware problem)

Maybe this helps some...

Putta · Apr 2, 2003, 06:29 AM

A sincere thanks to all of you who chirped in with how floppy disks are dead. Seriously, well done on showing how short sighted you all are.

Apple is trying to switch people from the PC world where they are only recently giving up on floppies.

Yes, we can burn CDs, send it by broadband, hell use a USB flash drive but the point is that PC users use floppy disk drives extensively and that there are times that you need to use them on Macs. In my work lots of people from the third world don't have CD burners and they send files on floppies. It is so awful that it takes 50 secs from inserting the disk till it appears on the desktop.

Additionally, to anyone who says we should blame the manufacturers, the problem lies in Apple's implementation of the USB standard. Those drives are made so that they don't need a driver (and believe me, it works on Windows 2000 - quickly!), instead they rely on the USB standard. It IS apple's fault that they don't work.

Anyway, when did we all start making excuses for the Mac's lack of ease of use? On an operating system which is so easily superior, why can't you rename a floppy disk in the same way you can rename any other file...

Everytime I read these forums, it gets me more and more that everyone is so negative and short sighted. Be helpful with your post or get out!

Kenneth · Apr 3, 2003, 04:37 AM

Floppy Disk Raid.. this is so funny.

http://ohlssonvox.8k.com/fdd_raid.htm

Who said floppy is dead?

[APi]TheMan · Apr 3, 2003, 04:59 AM

Originally posted by Kenneth:
Floppy Disk Raid.. this is so funny.

http://ohlssonvox.8k.com/fdd_raid.htm

Who said floppy is dead?

Haha! That's wonderful

RooneyX · Apr 3, 2003, 03:56 PM

Dear Apple,

DVDRW/CDRW packet writing please?

Rooney

bradoesch · Apr 3, 2003, 08:11 PM

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Dear Apple,

DVDRW/CDRW packet writing please?

Rooney

I'd like that too. I think I'll send Apple feedback on that right now.

CharlesS · Apr 4, 2003, 12:38 AM

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Dear Apple,

DVDRW/CDRW packet writing please?

Rooney

It'll never happen, because that plan has a fatal flaw - it would make sense.