Submitted 2 months ago by me@social.jlamothe.net to retrocomputing@lemmy.sdf.org
Came across an old USB floppy drive. I plugged it into my machine and it shows up, but I can't tell it it's actually working or not. When plugged in, it sounds like it's continuously reading, so I kind of want to test it. Can you even buy floppy disks any more?
That said, if I don't have any disks, I guess the question of whether or not it works is moot anyways.
I picked up an Amiga at a yard sale and found floppy disks on Amazon. I didn't bother buying any and instead bought a gotek floppy disk emulator.
www.floppydisk.com this is a real website with an actual reputable dealer behind it, or at least it was ten years ago when I bought some 5.25" disks from them, and the website looks exactly the same.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
I occasionally find 3.5" floppy disks at the local thrift stores. There are usually new old stock disks on ebay too.
The USB floppy drives usually only support IBM formatted disks and are useless for data recovery. For any other formats, a Greaseweazle will come in very handy.
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Yes, was about to post Greaseweazle. That and whatever scavenged drive sounds like the way to go in general. I don’t have one yet just because it costs the right amount to go on my gift wishlist, lol.