I found a box of old 3 1/2 inch floppy discs from a PC I had ten years ago and thought it would be a good idea to find out whether there was anything of value on them. The floppy drive as advertised is generic, but for less than $20.00 it was worth taking a bit of a chance. It arrived quickly and turned out to have been made by Teac, already a good start. Very conveniently, it connects to and is powered by a single USB port and, although it did come with an installation disc, my Vista operating system immediately found the appropriate drivers. It accepted, read, and cleanly ejected each of the floppy discs with zero glitches or problems so I would recommend this drive with no reservations. Of course, there was nothing worth saving on any of the discs but now I'm well equipped to deal with the past. TEAC 1.44MB USB External Floppy Disk Drive (Black)
1.44MB USB External Floppy Drive (Black)
I bough this disk drive to use in conjunction with my laptop computer. I have a older digital camera (Sony) that I just love. The only source of memory is the 1.44mb floppy disks. The device is a very plain and simple one. Nothing fancy.But it serves my needs perfectly. The price is right. I would recommend it to anyone. Papa Larry
I had forgotten how noisy and slow floppy drives are, but if you need to get some info from an old floppy disk, then this drive may be your answer....the price is right, and I copied 11 floppies w/o any apparent problem.
I purchased this USB External Floppy Disk Drive to get some info off of some old floppy disks. Unfortunately, the floppy disk drive did not work when I took it out of the box. No lights came on, no noise, nothing at all. I had to return it to Amazon and was promptly issued a refund. I think somethimes you just get a lemon. But I'm not giving up yet. I have plans to order another one from Amazon and hopefully it will work fine. I have never had a problem with any of my other orders.
What arrived, in a plain brown box, was not the TEAC drive described. It seems to be a cheap knock-off/counterfeit. And it did not work. I tried this on 3 different computers, Mac and Windows, and none of them could see the contents of a floppy. The drive made nice grinding noises, but no satisfaction. I'm surprised that Amazon would allow this to be listed falsely. The unit has no manufacturer's ID, but does have a printed label with a TEAC part number. But the other numbers on the label do not correspond to numbers found on the TEAC web site.
Ordered 2 of these USB external floppy drives. Both worked as a bootable "A:" drive for DOS boot disks. However, I was doubtful that these were really TEAC built drives from the start, especially because other sellers are selling what looks to be the same drive with a generic brand listing. It only took a quick glance at the disk slot to tell that there was a difference in design of the internal drive, as one had a flat slot door while the other had a curved slot door. So, I disassemble the enclosures. Each is held together by interlocking plastic tabs and a single screw that is under the small QC sticker near the cable port. It turns out that neither had a TEAC manufactured drive inside. Rather, both of mine were made by YE-DATA. Oddly though, each one was a different YE-DATA model/design. Further, both looked rather old and used, having scratches, bends, and/or dents. I am firmly convinced that all these units are merely generic, USB enclosures into which used/refurbished laptop drives are inserted and resold as new. One internal drive looked like it had been through a tornado, so definetly not new internals! The other had a manufacturer's date of 2002, so again definetly not new internals! On another note, a few of the interlocking tabs broke when I disassembled the enclosures, so when I put them back together, they don't fit as tightly as they should. Just an FYI, if you decide to disassemble yours...
It will be interesting to find out if the USB controller board can be detached and plugged into a different laptop drive and still function correctly. Both of mine appear to have the standard laptop ribbon cable interface. As soon as I get the chance, I'll test it. If is turns out that the USB interface board works universally for any standard laptop drive, then this product's value to me will double, since no company seems to make a USB adapter interface for FDD's. (I'd like to have the ability to use a FDD that I can mount inside a PC case that has a USB interface instead of the FDD controller interface, particulary since there are very few motherboards coming out that still have an onboard FDD controller!) If the USB controller does work with another, new laptop drive, I'll create a follow-up to this review.
So, in conclusion, both drives I bought work so far as expected. However, they are NOT TEAC drives! Instead, they are OLD, USED, SCRATCHED-UP laptop drives of various brands/models that are placed into generic, USB enclosures. This is probably why the sticker on the bottom of the enclosure says "All brand names and trademarks are registered property of their respective owners." Translation: "Who knows which manufacturer's drive is inside this thing?!!!"
UPDATE: I've just tried using the USB interface board with another laptop/slimline floppy drive. I tried it with a new, Sony-branded laptop drive that I bought a few years ago but had never used. Guess what? IT WORKS! So, it appears that the USB controller will work with any standard laptop/slimline drive. Further, I now know why this particular seller lists this as a TEAC brand USB floppy. It is because when this is plugged into a computer that is running Windows, it is detected as a plug&play TEAC USB floppy drive. So, it seams that the USB controller itself is either a genuine TEAC IC (the controller chip) or a clone of the TEAC chip. I suspect that anyone who has reviewed this item and stated that they have indeed received a TEAC USB drive has based that conclusion on the removable drive pop-up seen in their OS. Therefore, be aware: Just because you plug this thing into your Windows-based computer and its says "TEAC USB Floppy disc," doesn't mean that you've got a genuine TEAC floppy drive!!! All it means is that Windows "thinks" its a TEAC drive and loads the TEAC driver to run it! In any case, I can say that I am satisfied with the purchase, because I can disassemble the enclosure and use the USB cable and controller with any standard laptop/slimline floppy drive, which is what I was looking for before I resorted to buying this item anyway. I can now use the USB interface board with my new Sony drive, which is a GREAT DEAL QUIETER than than the used YE-DATA drive that came in the enclosure!!! [Although, on a related note, my Sony-branded drive (that I know for sure was a newly manufactured drive and was distributed by Sony) is identical in appearance to one of the YE-DATA drives found in one of the items I purchased, accept for the labels and markings! So, when it comes down to it, who the heck knows which company actually makes the internals of these slimline drives?! They were all probably made by the same generic, Chinese company and simply branded/labeled by which ever Brand-name company decided to distribute them. And for another side-note: One can go to TEAC's website and find a listing for a USB floppy drive for $50.00. It looks very similar to the item sold here. Makes me wonder if I bought one directly from their site whether I'd actually get an original, TEAC manufactured drive or merely another no-name drive with a TEAC controller attached. Let me tell you, if they are actually still selling brand-new, all-TEAC-components USB drives, it would be worth the 50 bucks. Cause, in another few short years, NEW floppy drives will be so scare, you'll wish you'd bought one while you could. Otherwise, repackaged, USED drives like the ones found in these listings will be all you'll be able to get!!! Maybe I'll splurge and order one from TEAC just to see what they are. If I do, I'll update this review!]
UPDATE 2: Well, I have ordered, received, and dissassembled a geniune TEAC USB floppy drive directly from TEAC. Upon initial glance of the TEAC drive and the ones sold in this listing, they look identical. However, with slightly more scrutiny, one can see that these drives are indeed different, and upon internal inspection, there remains no doubt that the drives available in this listing are a far cry from an actual TEAC drive! Here's how they differ:
1.) The Teac drive's housing is shorter than those found in this listing. This is because the drive housings in this listing have to have room for the extra USB interface board, the part that plugs into a slimline laptop drive via a ribbon cable.
2.) The Teac drive is branded as Teac on the external AND internal hardware itself.
3.) The Teac drive is branded internally as being made in Malaysia and the hardware is of a completely different design than any of the 3 other slimline laptop drives I have (2 of which came in the drives from this listing).
4.) The Teac drive's USB controller hardware is built directly into the drive itself; it does not have a seperate, generic USB controller board that plugs into it like the drives in this listing do.
5.) The Teac drive is detected in Windows (XP) and ready to use after plugging it in more quickly than any of the drives I have purchased from this listing.
6.) The Teac drive has given me no problems when using it to boot into DOS and run DOS programs, while both drives I purchased from this listing have given me different errors when running two different DOS programs. (Initially, I concluded that both worked in DOS correctly, but upon further testing, I received errors from both. One didn't boot a Windows ME boot disk correctly, and the other didn't allow a drive formatting program to start correctly.)
Conclusion: The drives sold in this listing are most definitely NOT Teac drives. Rather, they are cheap, generic units that internally consist of are used/refurbished/old-stock slimline laptop floppy drives of various brands plugged into a generic USB controller chip that probably illegally uses Teac hardware signatures to make Windows detect these as Teac drives. The actual, geniune drive that I bought from Teac seems superior in almost every way, from quality of materials to actual working performance. However, the one plus to the drives found in this listing is that one can interchange the USB controller with any slimline laptop drive you may have lying around or can acquire. So, if you buy one of these and the drive malfunctions, you could simply locate any old laptop floppy drive, switch them out, and be good to go again. Therefore, I'll still keep my rating at 3 stars, if for no other reason than for that capability. However, know for certain, genuine Teac drives these are NOT!!!
P.S. Yeah, I know this has been a long-winded review, but I wanted any perspective buyer to be fully informed of what you would actually recieve if you bought this item, a courtesy that this seller's description does not provide.'
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