My dad has several boxes of old floppies he would like me to go through. As such I am looking for suggestions for a USB external floppy drive for the smaller 3.5‑floppy variety and if I need to wipe them clean any suggestions on the best method to wipe them securely. I tried looking online and mostly found brands I have never heard of and their reliability seems very sketchy at best based on the reviews.
USB interface would be preferred for ease of use. Though had seen some older threads indicating people were using an adapter that goes from the older split cable to USB due to the reliability issues.
Personally I would go with a late 1990’s to early 2000’s external USB FDD for reliability, problem being that they are old and used and might not be working in the first place, but they were built a lot better and meant for actual use. Have had 2 newer ones and both couldn’t write Floppy Disks, both also had a hard time reading them.
I have a 2004 Toshiba and a 1998 TEAC FDD, Both work fine. Bought the Toshiba New old stock a few years back to have a backup for the TEAC since I play around with old computers and my 286 and 486 are a pain to work with without Floppies.
Having the external drives is a bit over kill for me, 7 of my computers have working FDDs. Mostly just wanted them in case I needed a portable one to take somewhere.
Thought I should point out that a lot of companies like IBM, HP, DELL are rebranded TEAC and Mitsumi drives if you go that route. Not a problem but a “Genuine IBM” FDD is made by TEAC…
I have to echo almost the the same as above - a couple years ago I bought two USB FDD (different stores, different branded but on reception, clearly the same no-name design) that didn’t function.
Noone with a good reputation makes these now - that I’m aware of.
An ebay ‘confirmed working’ used device from a seller or refurbisher than an importer could be a good place to look.