Overview
Floppy, and Zip disks are a dying technology; however, students, staff, and faculty still rely heavily on them for their data transport and storage. We must begin phasing out floppy, and zip drives while helping patrons transition to better data storage systems.
There are several reasons for this change. First floppy disks do not hold enough data for the many kinds of graphic, audio, video, reports, and presentation files that students are creating today. Some text only MS Word documents can easily be 256KB or larger, ¼ the capacity of a floppy disk for just one document. 1.4 MB is just not that big anymore! Next the industry as a whole is moving away from floppy disks. Apple has not included a floppy drive in any of their computers since 1998, and Dell has stopped including them as standard components since early 2003. It now costs extra to purchase them.
Finally, while this transition plan only directly refers to the Campus Open Computer Labs, we believe these recommendations should also be applied to other Department Labs, in addition to Faculty and Staff workstations. Implementation in these locations will be determined by their administrators.
Background
Why do people love floppy disks? They are inexpensive, portable, and work on multiple systems. But with this convenience comes problems for both the individual and the computer those drives are attached to.
First, we have to face the fact that the floppy drive is at the end of its life. Floppy drives are slow, and have limited storage capabilities. The disk and drive also have many mechanical parts that tend to break, and floppy disks are often subject to extreme conditions in backpacks.
For the computers, floppy drives are problematic for several different reasons. They are an added expense when purchasing the machine. When they fail they are expensive to replace, and replacing an internal floppy drive requires the entire machine to go to the shop, making it unavailable for several days.
Floppy drive failures are the most common hardware failure we see in the Campus Open Computer Labs. Many problem reports were due to floppy drive issues, such as stuck disks, foreign objects in the drive, orphaned shutters or drives that simply wouldn't read or write any more.
Typical reasons for Floppy Disk failure
- Temperature: Floppy disks should not be subjected to extreme temperatures. At high temperatures, such as when left in direct sunlight in a car during the summer, they can easily warp (or even melt) and all data on them can be lost.
- Magnetic Fields: Since floppy disks store their data in the form of magnetic fields, the data is susceptible to loss if the disk is exposed to magnetic interference. The most common way that floppy disks are damaged by magnetic fields is by contact or long-term proximity to regular, permanent magnets. This is especially true of devices that use magnets in them which many people don't realize, and in particular: stereo speakers. Speakers use magnets, sometimes quite large, to create sound (although many speakers intended for use with computers are shielded for this specific reason). Many home appliances that have large motors generate magnetic fields as well.
- Dust and Dirt: Since the floppy disk is contacted directly by the heads of the drive, any dirt or dust on the surface can damage the media surface and result in data loss. All disks are best kept stored in a closed box when not in use.
Do we really need them? - Alternatives to the Floppy Disk
We are fortunate to live in a time where there are other data storage options out there:
USB Flash Drives (aka USB Thumb Drive) - These are small solid state memory devices with a USB connector. They range in sizes from 16MB - 2GB, and are very affordable (128MB usually costs $16 - $30 depending on make/model and location of purchase). They are faster than floppy/zip disks and CD-RW, and have good storage capacity. They are also cross-platform compatible (Mac OS/Windows/Linux). The drawback is they require an available USB port. Just about all new computers purchased in the last three years have at least one available. All workstations in the Campus Open Computer Labs have at least one readily available.
CD-RW / DVD-RW / DVD+RW Drives - An inexpensive and portable solution. All workstations in the Campus Open Computer Labs have CD-RW drives in them. Depending upon the capacity of the discs purchased they hold between 650-700MB of data. Some workstations have DVD-RW drives that can hold approximately 4.7GB of data. The drawbacks are that they are slower than other media, and require a few additional steps.
Blackboard - Blackboard has 'Drop Box' feature that is an excellent solution for courses that require students to turn in computer related homework assignments.
Email - Individuals that need to transport documents with them, but do not have a portable storage device with them can e-mail the file(s) to themselves as an attachment (works great if the total data size is less than 4 MB). The only drawback is you need a network connection to access your mail.
UAA Personal Web Hosting account - All students, staff, and faculty have an individual web hosting account available for their use. This can be utilized as a means of transferring data from one workstation to another. Document size/quantity is limited only by your storage quota (Students have 10MB, Faculty and Staff have 20MB). For more information see Web Hosting on the UAA Technology site. The drawback is that data is potentially available to anyone that knows the name of the document (it is after all a web site), and of course you need a network connection to access it.
Each of these options have their advantages and disadvantages. Which option to use is dependent upon each individuals unique needs (file size, speed, etc), as well as their own personal preference.
USB Flash Drives, and Optical media (CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R) can be purchased at the UAA Campus Bookstore, or at several of the local computer vendors in town.
Transition Plan
While it is clear that floppy drives need to go, we don't want to remove them all instantly, especially since all of our existing systems have floppy drives. Starting during the Summer/Fall 2005 term we will begin a gradual phase-out of floppy and zip drives over the next four years. As each Campus Open Computer Lab is refreshed the workstations purchased will not have floppy, or zip drives.
After the four year transition, there would be no floppy, or zip disk drives in, or attached to any Campus Open Computer Lab system.
Schedule by location:
Summer/Fall 2005
Summer/Fall 2006
Summer/Fall 2007
Summer/Fall 2008
Last Updated: July 6, 2005
