ARCHIVED: Floppy disk drives phased out of Windows STCs

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The Student Technology Centers (STCs) have retired floppy disk drives in all Windows Residential Technology Centers (RTCs) and STCs in favor of more practical and cost-effective alternatives.

The decision to phase out floppy disk drives was not made lightly or without regard to student use of the technology:

Floppy disks are more expensive and less reliable than any other electronic storage choice available in the STCs and RTCs.
By 2006, nearly 25% of IU students already used USB flash drives for transporting data to and from the STCs and RTCs.
Further, 64% of IU students were already using recordable CD technology.
All STC and RTC workstations have easily accessible USB ports for maximum flexibility.

By comparison, newer technologies are inexpensive and more reliable:

The reliability of flash drives is unsurpassed. These durable devices are available in a wide range of capacities, and they can be used and reused indefinitely.
For archival storage, recordable CDs are similar in cost to blank floppy disks but offer more than 450 times the storage capacity of floppies. All STCs and RTCs have CD recording capabilities.
For even greater storage capacity, recordable DVDs offer 10 to 20 times the storage capacity of CDs. All STCs and RTCs can read DVDs, and a growing number now have DVD recording capabilities.

For more information about the availability of removable media in the STCs at IUB, see ARCHIVED: In which IUB STCs can I find removable media devices? At IUPUI, see ARCHIVED: In which IUPUI STCs can I find removable media devices?

If you have questions about the IUB STCs, contact stcchg@indiana.edu. At IUPUI, contact stctr@iupui.edu.