Syba USB Portable 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive, Plug and Play No Drivers Needed, Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10 Mac OSX Linux (External) NEC Chipset SY-USB-FDD

This Syba USB Portable Floppy Disk Drive is a handy little drive to have around!PROS:(1) Plug-and-play functionality, which requiring no specific drivers be installed to use with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.(2) It will read and write to and from 3.5" floppy disks, providing a handy way to access old files and programs on modern computers(3) The compact size makes it easy to tuck into a laptop bag for mobility.CONS:(1) Read/write performance is poor. This might be due to the floppy disk speeds as much as this particular drive itself.(2) Plastic construction feels like it may be prone to breakage if transported frequently.(3) The cable is a little short, especially when using with servers or cramped locations, causing it to sometimes hang from the USB cable rather than sitting on something. Not ideal, I know, but it works okay.Overall, for the times when you need this, it’s a lifesaver and very worthwhile option to access legacy media and data.

I bought this drive to write floppies for my old retrocomputers. The first few disks worked fine, but after that it stopped being able to read what it wrote, and so did other drives I tested it on. It also stopped being able to read good disks that worked fine on other drives. Maybe this was a fluke, but I wouldn't buy it again. The one I got was junk.

Like most people I bought this USB floppy disc drive in order to examine a bunch of my old 3.5 inch floppy discs to see what needed to be saved from the distant past. Well this new SYBA unit has performed flawlessly and was easy to install under Windows XP Home Edition too. Occasionally some of my old floppies have apparently failed however as Windows asks if the disc needs to be formatted and can't be read, but others have been opened and read just fine. The only drawbacks of this unit that I can see are the lack of a carrying case (that the directions say should come with it, but it didn't), but I think that I would rarely if ever travel with this drive (it can also be stored very easily in its small shipping box as well). Also, as previously noted by others the available cord that connects from the drive to the computer is somewhat short (only ~17" long), but for most modern latops this shouldn't be a problem and my desktop has a USB adaptor on the front so it is not an issue at all for me.

This particular model with the NEC chip seems to work well. It's plug and play and immediately showed up in Windows 10 x64 Explorer as the A:\ drive. I tested it with a big stack of old floppy disks and it read just about everyone of them. I would have to close and reopen Explorer with a new disk installed to clear the buffers to read correctly which is not a big deal. It is slow to read as are all the modern USB floppy drives. It has the same Teac drive as most do but the NEC chip set on the USB interface board seems to be far superior than the others. I have tried some of the other brands which didn't work well at all. This one did.

To read old floppy discs on a desktop computer running XP. The inbuilt one does not function any more. Mostly to read old records and photos, but need to import an app or program to read the photos.Avery Speedy delivery service as was not expecting to have it delivered until about 12th Aug but had it a week from confirming the order mid July.Thank you

PRO: Is identified immediately by Windows 10. Reads and writes to disks.CON: Does not recognize a disk is removed, so I have to F5 it or unplug it between disks.

I had ordered a few other USB floppy drives on Amazon only to discover they weren't worth the plastic they were made of. Complete waste of time and money. This USB Floppy drive from SYBA worked like a charm. While it did come with a driver CD, my Windows 11 system found it and I was up and running in seconds. I found that most of my floppy disks from the late 90s were dead but the ones the could be read came up without issue. I was able to recover old pictures, documents, and memories. If you are running Windows 10 or as in my case, Windows 11 Insider preview (or any earlier build), don't waste time and effort with the others, just get this one.

My mother just died, and when we went through the house, we found several floppies that contain my Dad's writing. Of course, we want to read those and save them. So, I bought this because the blurb said it was Mac compatible, which seems to be a very rare beast. It was NOT Mac-compatible. So, I tried it with a Windows system. NOPE. What a disappointing waste of time and money. I have returned it. Do NOT purchase this!