Buying new computer

[Ken Blake, MVP]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309623/en-us

"Floppy Disk Formats That Are Supported in Windows XP"

. 1.44 megabyte (MB) 3.5" floppy disk (read, write, format)
. 720 kilobyte (KB) 3.5" floppy disk (read, write only)
. 1.2MB 5.25" floppy disk (read, write only)
. 360KB 5.25" floppy disk (read, write only)

I no longer have one on this machine, but I've also used a 120MB LS-120
floppy drive under XP.

 

[burmanh]

Hello Marilyn,
Hope this answers your questions.
1> If you donot burn music or movies I donot see the point in having 2
seperate drives.
I would suggest you get a cheaper combo drive but make sure you get the
DVD writer drive since if not today then in a few years you will have
to have huge size backups & it makes more sense to invest in a dvd
writer.

2>You can get a cheap Internal floppy drive from tiger direct.com ot
CDWG or even ebay for around $10.

3> along with the floppy you can get a usb thumb /flash drive it is a
nice compact way to carry your data wherever you go and i am sure it
will come of some use.
If you like listening to music you can get one with an MP3 player built
in. (abour $25-30) if you look around for deals at staples or Office
Max ..etc.

**** It is not worth spending the time to install a 51/4 inch floppy
drive on a new Dell.
I know it is possible but really not worth it.

 

[Rick]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309623/en-us

"Floppy Disk Formats That Are Supported in Windows XP"

. 1.44 megabyte (MB) 3.5" floppy disk (read, write, format)
. 720 kilobyte (KB) 3.5" floppy disk (read, write only)
. 1.2MB 5.25" floppy disk (read, write only)
. 360KB 5.25" floppy disk (read, write only)


I've not used any sort of 5 1/4" drive under XP, but Microsoft claims that
they're supported.

I think that the floppy controller on a PC of recent manufacture may not
support more than a single drive. Going back to ME wouldn't help that. The
obvious solution would be to obtain an old single drive (eBay)? but I've not
done it myself. That assumes that there's no simple modification to the
3.5"/5.25" dual drive to make it behave like a single 5.25" one.

I'd refer the original poster to Dell support, but I'd be surprised if they
could come up with information of that nature. The demand for getting data
off 5 1/4" floppies must be rather, er, limited in 2006.


Address scarmbled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

I think LS120 drives are supported too seems to me I saw that when i
installed XP Pro.

Rick