Unit arrived promptly yesterday from Tiger Direct. First thing I noticed was the plastic flap door (which normally covers the hole where the disk goes) was misaligned. Thought I was going to have to break it out, but I was able to bend it and get it working properly without having to take things apart. Then I tried plugging it into the right side USB port of my Mac PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.3.9 (and put a floppy disk in). The drive made loud grinding noises on the disk, and wouldn't stop, but no icon appeared on the desktop. Then put it on a Dell Windows XP laptop I had, and it worked fine--well, almost. When I tried to Quick Format a disk, it said the disk was write protected (which it wasn't), but I put in a different disk, then re-inserted the first one, and it formatted it. I hadn't bothered to install the Windows drivers that came with the unit; by the way, there are no drivers necessary for Max OS X, and, apparently, not for Windows XP either. Took the drive back to the Mac and tried plugging it in to the LEFT side USB port, and suddenly it worked fine. Tried the RIGHT side port again, no luck. First time I've seen something like this.
Also, there is NOTHING on the unit with the name "Sabrent" that I could find. I wondered if I actually got what I'd ordered.
That's the extent of my use of this thing so far. Assuming it keeps working this way, I won't be sending it back.
[...] Sabrent SBT-UFDB USB External 3.5-Inch 1.44 MB 2x Floppy Disk Drive (Black)
I recently purchased a Sabrent SBT-UFDB USB External 3.5 inch Floppy Disk Drive for my new Dell Computer. As you are well aware most, if not all, new computer systems do not include a 3.5 inch disk drive anymore. I have hundreds of 3.5 inch floppy disks with vital information on them that I need to access in my profession as a Pastor. This particular unit is just what I needed to get the job done. All I had to do was plug it into my computer's USB port and away I went. I experienced absolutely no problems with its installation, just plug it in and its done. I am not a computer savy person so I needed a fool proof system that works all the time. This 3.5 inch disk drive provided me access to my data and I can now use the files that I spent hours preparing before the technology changed. I highly recommend this item for other computer confounded persons like myself. Reverend George R. Sanderson M.S., MSRC, MSW.
With the onset of flash memory, the floppy disk, as a computer medium, has gone the way of the Dodo bird. On new computer systems, a floppy drive is usually an add-on. This USB floppy drive is exactly what you need to transfer any old floppy's to your new machine. It was recognized immediately by both my Vista and XP machines and has worked without any issues. In other words, it performs exactly as it should for a low price.
I have many photos on floppy disc and my new computers didn't come with a floppy drive. I will be using the drive with both my laptop and desk top. Shipping and setup were flawless. Would I buy this item again from Amazon? Yes, the price was right and the item was shipped promptly.
The product wont read disks when inserted if you have a Mac. You need to insert a disk then unplug the device and plug it back in. It also only read about one out of every four disks that I inserted. I only bought it because I found some old floppies and was curious as to what was on them. Mac users, if you need one of these drives I recommend one that Sony sells. I used it about a year ago then promptly sold it, a mistake on my part... The only reason I gave the Sabrent two stars is because it actually read a disk.
"It works good. I will tell everybody. When somebody has a computer without A Drive, I will tell them to buy this one. I don't know what I would do if I did not hear about this one. Thank you for air mailing my order to me, real fast."
I bought an external hard drive in order to backup the entire contents of my laptop. Unfortunately Windows XP won't let you create a restore disk on CD-rom, it has to be a floppy disk. That left me two options: 1) buy a full-fledged software package like Norton Ghost for about $70 or buy this cheap floppy disk drive. Given the price difference and the mediocre reviews for the fancy software packages, I went with the disk drive. The Windows software for backing up your entire hard drive could not be simpler, and it worked like a charm. The only trouble I had was that the floppy disc drive couldn't use or format some of my diskettes. I have yet to figure out why. Other old diskettes worked fine. They might just be so old that they degraded, but they were a type that it is supposed to be able to use.
Update: I haven't had any trouble with recently purchased disks. I think the others were just old.
My new laptop computer with Vista didn't have a 3.5 floppy dirve. I had a lot of files saved on 3.5 disks from my old computer and need an easy way to get them on the laptop. I plugged the drive into the USB port and Vista automatically recognized the drive, automatically set up the drivers, and it was ready to use. It does come with a disk and instruction book for loading drivers for other systems but the disk isn't needed for Vista. The USB cord is only 16 inches long, which could be a problem if you were connecting to the back of a desk-top computer, but you can buy a USB extension cable it needed.
I loaded files from 33 disks on my first try and didn't have any problems. The price for this item was only about half of what some of the brand name floppy drives cost. Be aware that this item is listed as a Sabrent brand drive but the box it comes in is marked Teac Corporation. When you load it on your system it shows up as a Mitsumi FDD 061M USB device. I don't know what all that means but it's an excellent buy for the price and it works well. - External Floppy Drive - Floppy - Usb Floppy Drive - Sabrent'
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