Which external floppy drive do I need?

[Ukdodger]

Both my inbuilt floppy drives no longer work after my son installed a solid state hard drive. Which works great but I would like to put some games on my desktop PC. However being a novice I have no idea which external floppy to buy. It all gets confused around 3.5inch floppys (which I dont have. I want one for the larger modern floppys) and those that wont work with W7 (which I do have). I'd be extremely grateful is anyone could just point me to a link having the drive (one that plugs into the USB port) I need. I'm in the UK. Many thanks

 

[badger906]

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251226491386

sorry about the mobile link im on my phone.

the largest capacity floppy is 1.44mb which just abiut any floppy drive made in the last 20 years would be sufficient

I actually remember when the 1.44mb floppies came out and I was dying to get the extra 0.2mb!! oh nostalgia!!

 

[Ukdodger]

USB 2.0 Portable External Floppy Drive Disk For Laptop Desktop Netbook Brand NEW | eBay

sorry about the mobile link im on my phone.

the largest capacity floppy is 1.44mb which just abiut any floppy drive made in the last 20 years would be sufficient

I actually remember when the 1.44mb floppies came out and I was dying to get the extra 0.2mb!! oh nostalgia!!

Thanks Badger so does that mean that 1.44mb is the same physical size as the floppy drives in my PC?

 

[badger906]

it does indeed. 1.44mb is the largest size floppy disc that you can purchase.

 

[bigmck]

It all gets confused around 3.5inch floppys (which I dont have. I want one for the larger modern floppys) and those that wont work with W7 (which I do have).

I don't think there is anything as a "Modern Floppy". They are not used much these days. The 3.5 inch floppys are the 1.44 mb which was mentioned above. Are you sure you are not talking about a CD instead of a floppy?

 

[Ukdodger]

It all gets confused around 3.5inch floppys (which I dont have. I want one for the larger modern floppys) and those that wont work with W7 (which I do have).

I don't think there is anything as a "Modern Floppy". They are not used much these days. The 3.5 inch floppys are the 1.44 mb which was mentioned above. Are you sure you are not talking about a CD instead of a floppy?

Thanks Big. Isnt a floppy the things that games come on? A disk that measures 120mm in diameter. They must have more than 1.44mb on them? Are they 'CD's? They are what I mean.

 

[strollin]

Both my inbuilt floppy drives no longer work after my son installed a solid state hard drive. ...

Instead of jumping to an external, why not determine why your internal drives no longer work? It could be something simple such as that a cable was knocked loose during the ssd install. There isn't anything about an ssd install that should prevent your internal drives from working.

Even if you have to take it to a shop it would probably be less expensive than buying an external and you would have 2 working drives instead of just one.

For clarity, which of these are we talking about?

 

[LMiller7]

Floppy drives are obsolete and are rarely found on modern systems. Only very old systems would have more than one. They have a capacity of only 1.44 MB which is much too small for modern software. To install modern software you need a DVD drive which is very different.

 

[Ukdodger]

Both my inbuilt floppy drives no longer work after my son installed a solid state hard drive. ...

Instead of jumping to an external, why not determine why your internal drives no longer work? It could be something simple such as that a cable was knocked loose during the ssd install. There isn't anything about an ssd install that should prevent your internal drives from working.

Even if you have to take it to a shop it would probably be less expensive than buying an external and you would have 2 working drives instead of just one.

For clarity, which of these are we talking about?

Thanks Strollin. The top one.

Are they that expensive then?

 

[strollin]

OK, we're talking about a CD or DVD drive, not a floppy. The external drives aren't particularly expensive, around £19.99, but why buy one if your existing drives are still good? Do you want a drive that can burn disks as well as read them? Here's a link to the UK Amazon site listing external optical drives: http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=430559031

 

[bigmck]

Here is a place to start for price comparisons. Amazon.co.uk: external dvd player

 

[Ukdodger]

OK, we're talking about a CD or DVD drive, not a floppy. The external drives aren't particularly expensive, around £19.99, but why buy one if your existing drives are still good? Do you want a drive that can burn disks as well as read them? Here's a link to the UK Amazon site listing external optical drives: http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=430559031

Excellent Strollin. Exactly what I wanted. Cheers

I dont know why the drives cant be made to work. Only that my son says they cant. It may have something to do with the PC being upgraded from XP to W7. It's a shame as there are two of them. Thanks again.

 

[badger906]

a disk drive is a fundamental part of windows, simply adding an SSD or upgrading to 7 will not stop one working. Do they show up in task manager and or has your son unplugged the SATA power connectors to them to power the new SSD??

 

[Ukdodger]

a disk drive is a fundamental part of windows, simply adding an SSD or upgrading to 7 will not stop one working. Do they show up in task manager and or has your son unplugged the SATA power connectors to them to power the new SSD??

I'd bet the latter. He mentioned something about power connectors when I asked him why the drives didnt work. How do the drives show up in the Task manager. What will they be called? I cant see anything that looks obviously like a drive letter.

 

[strollin]

a disk drive is a fundamental part of windows, simply adding an SSD or upgrading to 7 will not stop one working. Do they show up in task manager and or has your son unplugged the SATA power connectors to them to power the new SSD??

I'd bet the latter. He mentioned something about power connectors when I asked him why the drives didnt work. How do the drives show up in the Task manager. What will they be called? I cant see anything that looks obviously like a drive letter.

I think badger meant to say Device Manager, not Task Manager. In Device Manager you should see them listed as DVD/CD-ROM Drives. If your son unplugged the power connectors because power was needed for the ssd, then there are splitters and adapters available that can be used to provide power for the drives using other available leads from the PSU.

 

[Ukdodger]

a disk drive is a fundamental part of windows, simply adding an SSD or upgrading to 7 will not stop one working. Do they show up in task manager and or has your son unplugged the SATA power connectors to them to power the new SSD??

I'd bet the latter. He mentioned something about power connectors when I asked him why the drives didnt work. How do the drives show up in the Task manager. What will they be called? I cant see anything that looks obviously like a drive letter.

I think badger meant to say Device Manager, not Task Manager. In Device Manager you should see them listed as DVD/CD-ROM Drives. If your son unplugged the power connectors because power was needed for the ssd, then there are splitters and adapters available that can be used to provide power for the drives using other available leads from the PSU.

Cheers. No they arent there and I'll bet you're right. I'll have a word with my son. Connecting power cables cant be that difficult.

Thanks