[lug] External USB floppy drives and driver diskettes

[Hugh Brown]

karl horlen wrote:
> The last server I purchased didn't have a floppy
> drive.     I thought why waste the money and bay on
> it.
> 
> When it came time to make a driver diskette I was
> later presented with a dilemma :
> 
> 1) either crack open an existing computer, pull the
> floppy and temporarily install it on the server to do
> what i needed to do.
> 
> 2) try to find a way to make usb flash stick or a CD
> function as a driver diskette.
> 
> 3) buy a usb external floppy drive.
> 
> 4) buy the server with a floppy drive in the first
> place.
> 
> All are potential options.  
> 
> Number 1 and 4 work but aren't always practical or
> quick, especially if you're working on someone else's
> system and options 2 or 3 are available.
> 
> I remember searching for ways to do number 2 at the
> time and I didn't get very far.  I also wasn't aware
> if the usb flash stick would even be "seen" at install
> time.
> 
> I also wondered if the installer would be smart enough
> to allow me to swap out the install CD and put in a
> Driver CD versus a diskette.  
> 
> I like the idea of an external usb floppy DRIVE.  It's
> cheap, portable, quick and can be used across multiple
> systems.  But I wasn't sure if it would be seen at
> install time either.  I don't see why it wouldn't but
> thought I'd ask.
> 
> Anybody have experience with the 2 and 4 options and
> linux?  



2) HP makes a windows app that will allow you to take a dd/rawrite image 
of a floppy and put it on a usb stick.  Whether or not you can boot from 
a usb device is a function of the BIOS of the machine.  I believe most 
recent machines will.  Older machines sometimes call the usb boot device 
ZIP100 or similar.

3) Whether you can boot from a usb device is a function of the BIOS. 
See above.

The only time I've needed a floppy disk in the last 3 years was to flash 
firmware/bios on a device.  "Download this .exe which will copy 
everything to a floppy disk."  Very gradually, the bios writing dept of 
the big vendors are starting to process that the hardware side of the 
house isn't shipping floppy drives any more.


HTH,

Hugh