A blast from the past

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Apr 20

I think you are right. Everything becomes obsolete very quickly.

3 people like this

Raj

@Butterfingers (66603)

• India

21 Apr 20

@JudyEv yes

1 person likes this

WorDazza

@WorDazza (15826)

• Manchester, England

21 Apr 20

I believe it was Bill Gates who, when questioned about memory size on the first personal computers, responded by asking "why would anyone need more than 640KB?" This from a man who's company's later operating sytems would chew up more memory than you could shake a stick at!!

3 people like this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Apr 20

It's incredible how things have changed and how much memory we need now - or think we need.

1 person likes this

WorDazza

@WorDazza (15826)

• Manchester, England

21 Apr 20

@JudyEv We do need it because Windows is an incredibly hungry operating system, getting greedier with every release. It's just as well memory is dirt cheap these days or your average laptop would be prohibitively expensive.

1 person likes this

WorDazza

@WorDazza (15826)

• Manchester, England

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv Yeah, photos and videos take up an awful lot of space. I'm constantly having to get rid of stuff from my phone that people send me on Whatsapp. Why they think I'm interested in a picture of their lunch I really don't know.

1 person likes this

Judy Story

@jstory07 (148702)

• Roseburg, Oregon

21 Apr 20

I remember them and floppy disks.

3 people like this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Apr 20

They called these floppy disks sometimes but they're not floppy at all.

1 person likes this

Anna

@LadyDuck (502149)

• Italy

21 Apr 20

I have boxes and boxes full of floppies and I remember when a full computer system could be run from a floppy. Other times. I remember also the older ones, those in the photo are 2"1/4, the older ones (bigger) were 5"1/2 and the capacity 1.44 MB.

2 people like this

Anna

@LadyDuck (502149)

• Italy

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv YES, we have external floppy readers (on USB ports), both for 3.1/4 and 5.1/2. We have dozens of PC games on floppies that can still be installed on the modern machines.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

Do you have anything that can 'read' them now? Things have moved on so far now.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

@LadyDuck That's really cool. I'm impressed.

1 person likes this

Maggs

@maggs224 (2317)

• Alicante, Spain

22 Apr 20

Our first computer was the ZX Spectrum which had a whopping 128K RAM. I think we used to load programs on that from a portable tape recorder. The we moved on to he Atari ST with 520 k of memory just imagine only a half a meg of ram lol.... Like Anna @LadyDuck I had and might still have somewhere some boxes of floppies with stuff on that date back to the 1980s

2 people like this

Anna

@LadyDuck (502149)

• Italy

22 Apr 20

@maggs224 I remember the ZX Spectrum, we still have one in its original box on a shelf (see photo). Our first computer was an Apple II, it is also here with us... we should donate those all things to a museum.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

And yet we all managed at the time, didn't we?

1 person likes this

Hanni Harel

@Hannihar (130150)

• Israel

21 Apr 20

By Judy Evans @JudyEv Isn't it something you find something you no longer can use?

2 people like this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Apr 20

We've kept these for years. They could have gone out long ago.

1 person likes this

Hanni Harel

@Hannihar (130150)

• Israel

21 Apr 20

@JudyEv ok.

1 person likes this

allen0187

@allen0187 (59648)

• Philippines

21 Apr 20

Blast from the past! Go ahead and post this photo and confuse the kids of today.

1 person likes this

allen0187

@allen0187 (59648)

• Philippines

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv no. Will check it out.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

Have you see the YouTube clip of kids today to figure out how a rotary telephone works? It's hilarious.

1 person likes this

Sharon

@simone10 (54180)

• Louisville, Kentucky

22 Apr 20

I definitely remember floppy disks. I used them all the time.

1 person likes this

Sharon

@simone10 (54180)

• Louisville, Kentucky

24 Apr 20

@JudyEv They really did. I don't remember what happened to the ones I had.

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

They just seemed to disappear eventually.

1 person likes this

DianneN

@DianneN (254949)

• United States

21 Apr 20

I arrived late to the computer scene, so don’t know what that is.

1 person likes this

DianneN

@DianneN (254949)

• United States

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv Ugh!

1 person likes this

DianneN

@DianneN (254949)

• United States

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

Because computers didn't have huge memories, you would store files on these types of disks. In an office, maybe you'd have letters stored on one (then need more and more), accounts on another, etc.

1 person likes this

Valerie J. Routhieaux

@just4him (323168)

• Green Bay, Wisconsin

22 Apr 20

I used to have stacks of disks for my books. Sometimes I could get one novel on a disk. More often it took two per novel. I threw them away a long time ago.

1 person likes this

Valerie J. Routhieaux

@just4him (323168)

• Green Bay, Wisconsin

23 Apr 20

@JudyEv Yes, it was. That happened to one of my novels. I'm so happy I have Dropbox now for backup.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

23 Apr 20

I'm a bit surprised a novel only took one or two disks. And wasn't it a major catastrophe if a disk corrupted?

1 person likes this

Thelma

@thelme55 (79311)

• Germany

22 Apr 20

Oh, yes I remember it. It was a very long time ago.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

Things have changed since then, haven't they?

1 person likes this

Thelma

@thelme55 (79311)

• Germany

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv Yes. We have a lot of changes since then.

1 person likes this

LindaOH

@LindaOHio (222222)

• United States

21 Apr 20

I still use them. I bought a floppy disk reader that plugs into my computer. I have a LOT of photos stored on those disks.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

That's interesting. We have an external hard drive that we store photos on.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

23 Apr 20

@LindaOHio Mostly I can find what I want when I need a particular file but sometimes it's an effort.

1 person likes this

LindaOH

@LindaOHio (222222)

• United States

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv I have one too; but I don't want to transfer them all onto the hard drive. This way I have them by trip or by year. They are all printed out; so if I want to use a photo (here, for example), it's pretty easy to find something.

1 person likes this

Jim Bauer

@porwest (112717)

• United States

21 Apr 20

Wow. Amazing how ancient these things look. lol. I still have a bunch too and nothing that can read them. I bet if one REALLY wanted to, they could probably buy an external reader with a USB port. Even then, not sure the files would be compatible with anything today.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

LindaOH has a reader that plugs into her computer so it can be done. I would wonder about the compatibility too.

1 person likes this

Jim Bauer

@porwest (112717)

• United States

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv That is kind of what I am thinking. A lot of these files are in old formatted files for which the programs no longer exist. Not sure how they would be read.

1 person likes this

CarolDM

@CarolDM (203396)

• Nashville, Tennessee

21 Apr 20

I remember the floppies well.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

These weren't floppy at all, were they? But the bigger ones they replaced were.

1 person likes this

CarolDM

@CarolDM (203396)

• Nashville, Tennessee

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv You are correct, when I first looked I thought of the bigger floppies.

1 person likes this

simplyme

@m_audrey6788 (58468)

• Germany

21 Apr 20

Oh yes. I remember that

I used to use that a lot at work

1 person likes this

simplyme

@m_audrey6788 (58468)

• Germany

21 Apr 20

@JudyEv Yes. I use USB if I need to save a file

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

21 Apr 20

I did too. We'd never manage with them now.

1 person likes this

OceanTiara

@RebeccasFarm (91299)

• United States

25 Apr 20

I remember those too oh no lol

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

26 Apr 20

We're getting old I think.

Jekca

@Jessicalynnt (50523)

• Centralia, Missouri

21 Apr 20

I haven't seen one of those in YEARS

1 person likes this

Jekca

@Jessicalynnt (50523)

• Centralia, Missouri

22 Apr 20

@JudyEv yeah, I've been trying to go through things and clean out things, I need to do more in the hall closet.

1 person likes this

@JudyEv (381760)

• Rockingham, Australia

22 Apr 20

I'm going to look for more. More stuff I can throw out!

1 person likes this

RasmaSandra

@RasmaSandra (97912)

• Daytona Beach, Florida

22 Apr 20

I used to save documents and photos on floppies a very long time ago, Then the last time the floppies were checked they could no longer be opened and were just tossed out, The only thing saved was photos and I have them in my present PC but boy are they small.

1 person likes this