Floppy Drive Reappears -- in Panasonic Toughbook CF-30

The floppy drive has nearly disappeared from new PCs, displaced by recordable optical disks and USB drives. A quick walk down the virtual isles of Dell or Gateway shows just how unlikely it is that your new computer will come with a floppy drive. That leads to today's double-take: the Panasonic Toughbook CF-30.

The Panasonic Toughbook line of notebooks targets users who know their laptops are going to get abused -- notably law enforcement. The CF-30 features a magnesium case, a shock-mounted removable hard drive and -- the big surprise -- a floppy drive!

With a list price nearing $5K, they ain't gonna sell enough to start a trend here, but it still makes me wonder. Maybe bad guys are using floppies more and cops need a floppy drive to inspect the evidence?

In any case, once you get your $5K floppy-enabled laptop, the next problem is finding some floppy disks. They're disappearing from the usual outlets, so pretty soon you'll have to buy them mail order if you don't live in a major metropolitan area.

See Also

• Is the floppy drive dead?
• The MobileWhack take on the Panasonic Toughbook CF-30.

October 24, 2006October