The floppy drive is going the way of the dodo bird. Dell Computers says it will stop installing disk drives in its desktop computers starting next month.

The move has analysts predicting disks will become extinct much like the flightless bird, once a native of the island of Mauritius. Discovered by sailors in 1598, they were hunted into extinction by 1681.

Dell officials say the drive will become an option.

The company no longer provides floppy drives on standard notebook computers.

Disks hold up to 1.44 megabytes of information but newer storage devices can hold far more data, at a competitive price.

"What Dell has done, I expect every major vendor to do in the next 12 months," predicts Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm.

"The utility of a floppy disk is just no longer there for most users," said Bajarin.

For some consumers, CD ROMS, ZIP drives and portable hard drives make more sense. A 1.44 MB disk can be too small to handle the daily data of a digital life of photos, MP3 files, e-mail records.

Lionel Menchaca of Dell says 16-megabyte USB flash memory drives will be offered standard with the company's high-end model, Dimension, first. It will be rolled out to other models depending on customer demand.

Menchaca says the keychain-sized USB drives will cost the same as floppy drives.