Buying External Floppy Disk Drives

Although some have claimed that floppy disk drives are becoming "obsolete", they still offer several important advantages; a floppy disk can be inexpensively replaced if lost or broken, it can be useful for correcting some types of computer problems, it can run older software which came on disks (rather than CDs), and it can be used with both new or older computers. However, you may not be able to use them if you have a newer computer or laptop which lacks a floppy disk drive, and you don't have the expertise to install an internal drive and/or it doesn't have any free drive bays for installing additional drives. A solution to this is to purchase an external floppy disk drive, which is more expensive, but easier to install and can be interchanged among different computers.

However, it is important to choose the appropriate type of drive for your specific computer. Some newer external floppy disk drives cannot be used with most computers from the '90s (unless they have been upgraded appropriately). On the other hand, a massive quantity and variety of external disk drives were made during the 1980s and can still be purchased used; these should be avoided unless you own a computer of the same brand name and time period. Nonetheless, it is not usually difficult to identify the appropriate type.

First, check to see if your computer has one or more USB ports (these are small and rectangular, with no metal pins or pinholes). They may be on the back, side (some laptops), or front (near the base). If it does have them, and an operating system which supports USB (such as Windows 95B or a newer Windows version), you can use one of the many new USB external floppy disk drives. A few of these require a USB version 2.0 card; some older or less expensive cards only support USB 1.1 devices. If you aren't sure what type of USB card your system has and it is not very new, just purchase an external drive which works with both 1.1 and 2.0 to avoid any problems. Remember to check the system requirements for the specific drive you are purchasing; some require at least Windows 98 or Windows 98SE (Second Edition).

If your computer lacks USB ports or a USB-capable operating system, you may still be able to purchase an external floppy drive which is designed for your particular computer. A wide variety of non-USB external floppy drives exist for specific computer models and series, especially laptops. For example, according to the Apple website (apple.com), the Macintosh HDI-20 external disk drive can be used with the Macintosh PowerBook 100, which has a floppy disk port. A variety of differently-designed ports are used to connect these drives to different computer models.

External floppy disk drives can be purchased at Best Buy, OfficeMax, RadioShack.com, WalMart.com, eBay.com, and elsewhere.