As announced in September 2002, CAEN has now begun purchasing PCs without floppy drives for the first time. Times are also changing for Campus Computing Sites which also began purchasing floppyless PCs this summer.

The new Dell GX270 computers contain both Zip250 and DVD/CD-RW combination drives which provide both magnetic and optical storage with far greater capacity than the traditional 1.44 MB floppy disk. Up to 700 MB of data can be stored on a single CD. In addition, with multiple USB ports accessible from the front of the machine and the costs of pocket USB storage drives dropping, many storage options are available.

CAEN also provides ample network storage space via AFS. For information on using your AFS space, refer to the CAEN web site at http://www.engin.umich.edu/caen/faqs/Accounts/AFS/. Previously existing PCs installed in the CAEN labs and Media Union will continue to have floppy drives until they are replaced with newer equipment. CAEN expects to phase out floppy drives on all lab computers by Fall 2005.