Nov 10 2008
3.5 Inch Floppy Drives
It wasn’t that long ago that 3 1/2″ Floppy Drives were a common device included on all computers. Even though they are disappearing from the market I still use them from time to time. For me, I like to backup letters and spreadsheets not only to an external backup drive but to a floppy, just to have multiple media backups in the event that anyone of the devices fail. In the Windows XP days, if you had a SATA Hard Drive you will indeed need a Floppy Drive to load the drivers during installation of the OS, as that is what Windows XP expected back in 2001 when it was released.
Scouring the Internet, these 3.5″ Floppy Drives can be bought for dirt cheap. Internal floppies will run about $8 bucks whereas external USB floppies cost about $20 bucks. If you have a need for a Floppy Drive or have data on floppy discs that you need to get off onto your computer then you shouldn’t hesitate in buying a Floppy Drive now. Who knows how long this piece of hardware will be around. To view available Floppy Drives on the market check out NewEgg by clicking here.
I still have internal floppy drives in each of my computers. I haven’t found USB equipment to be all that reliable, and floppy disks are cheaper than writeable CDs. Also, if one fails I haven’t lost all that much data, compared to USB flash drives that can lose hundreds of megabytes in an instant. Zip drives are still a good option as well.