BT-144 Slim Black USB External Floppy Disk Drive, Plug & Play, USB Powered

For years I've been a writer by profession. For a long time I've had a large number of 3.5" floppy disks taking up shelf space in my home office since for quite a while I haven't had a computer that has a floppy disk drive. The thought of having to ditch all that stuff was unpleasant, to say the least. With this slim external disk drive (and it IS slim -- and light) I solved the problem. And very easily.It doesn't say on the box that this drive works with Windows 7 (it says it works with Win 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista). But it does. When you plug it into a USB port, Windows 7 automatically and quickly finds the needed driver. And within literally seconds you're ready to move or copy your files to your hard drive, a flash drive or wherever.As someone else warned, this drive works only with high density (2HD) disks. Just one of my disks wasn't high density, so I didn't lose much.Now if only my old Iomega ZIP drive would plug in with a VGA-USB cable and work with Windows 7 I'd be able to salvage a lot more old files. Too bad it doesn't. But at least this drive works, and works well.(One other thing: If you're moving/copying word processing files, as I have been, you may run into a problem with MS Word if you're using Office 2010 and your files use much older versions of Word, as its "backwards compatible" in only a limited way. Most of my files were written with WordPerfect, fortunately, which is entirely backwards compatible and which also lets you save files in a very large range of formats.)

This floppy reader was able to read and copy nearly all the old files on floppy disks allowing me to save them on thumb drives. There were only a few files listed as either corrupted or not readable, of the dozens I wanted to save. All in all, this was a very effective product for me, and cost very little. Its speed was less than dazzling, so it gets 4 stars out of 5. The key thought here is: it worked!

This USB 1.44 MB diskette was Plug n' Play in my five year old Windows 8.1 PC without using the data CD-ROM that came with it. After a short time while the computer was discovering new hardware, Windows Explorer added Floppy Drive A: Removing and changing the diskette does NOT force a new read, which was expected based on some other comments I read here. Unplugging the drive, waiting a few seconds, and plugging it back in, THEN inserting the diskette worked every time I tried it.About some diskettes not reading -- that shouldn't be too surprising. Floppy diskette construction and design used about the same theory as cassette tapes - synthetic media with metal powder sprayed on it . Like cassettes, floppies start degrading from day one, and the Grim Reaper of disposable consumer media gets closer every time you actually USE the product. Handling, dust, and incidental magnetism, such as being near a loudspeaker, play their part, too.I plan to hook it up only when I need it and store it in its box in a cool place when I don't need it. It may not last forever, but what does? For what it costs, it works, and it works OK.

Received this floppy drive quickly from ShopDigi. It was correctly recognized by Windows 7 Home edition when plugged into the USB port of my Gateway NV79 laptop. The drive seems to work a little harder than ones I remember back in the day, but it did format a floppy correctly once I signed on as a full rights user. The item listing promised clearly a "Teac External drive...by Teac", and mentions Teac in several places. The item I received has no indication that it is by Teac. Not on the cardboard box or the item itself. Also, the listing photo show an in-line noise suppressor that is very common for this type of device, and lends to the proper appearance of the item. The item I received did not have this in-line noise suppressor. Item appears to be a generic no-name device made in China. I did not take the item apart to see if the drive inside is indeed a Teac, but it seems they would say so on the outside if they made the item as promissed by the listing. Update 1/6/2011 - I have used software to identify the floppy drive I received, it is "Mitsumi" not Teac which explains why it is noisy. I would rather had what was advertised on the listing (Teac).

I recently purchased a new Windows 7 desktop and laptop and was needing to exchange files with an older Windows 98 machine. A major problem that I have found with Windows 7 computers is that many device manufacturers have not provided drivers for Windows 7. This includes a great deal of older equipment that is still being sold. Therefore I was apprehensive about which floppy drive to buy. I chose this one because a couple of other reviews had said the drive worked with Windows 7, but also, I checked out the drive's manufacturer to see if the company still existed and was manufacturing the drive, which it was. The company's website also said that the drive worked with Windows 7, even though the box lists operating systems only through Vista. I was very happy that the drive was recognized instantly by both my computers, one running Windows 7 Home Starter (32-bit machine) and the other running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit machine). Some of the other USB floppy drives on Amazon would probably work all right, but I bought this one to be certain.I will issue a warning about reading old floppies. If you have a batch of them and they have been sitting around for a few years, some of them will be "dead." You won't be able to read them, nor will you be able to reformat them. They have simply deteriorated, as all of them will with time. So if the drive won't read or format a floppy, it is most likely the floppy, not the drive. Try another floppy or buy some new ones, and throw out the bad ones. I have noticed in other reviews that several purchasers of other drives have encountered these problems, and users have blamed the drive. The drive is probably not the problem.

I have a bunch of disks but it only worked for the first 20. I retried previous disks that worked before but they didn't work anymore either. I tried it in another computer but it still didn't work. I'm going to spend a few dollars more and try a different brand.

Funciona muy bien, el problema es encontrar los discketes.

Funciona perfectamente

Lo necesitaba para usar floppy, todo bien.