USB reader for old 3.5" floppies

DonS

Member
Cleaning out the closet and have a hundred or more old 3.5" floppies -
I'd like to have a look at a few before tossing and I know there are a few old files I'd like to capture.
Is there anyone with a floppy reader that connects via USB that I could borrow or maybe even buy.
Or, do you know of a service that transfers the data onto a USB stick to see what's on them?
Does anyone have any use for these old 3.5" floppy's? If so, they are free!
 

TimRichards

Well-Known Member
Floppies: they’re such a good example of the march of progress. Initially they protected hours and hour of valuable work and as such were worth far more than their cost. Poetically speaking, let’s say they cost a dollar. Then they became more mass produced and sold for 50 cents. Eventually the market falls away and they are worth only a quarter. Then they stop selling them at retail and there is a surge of used ones in thrift stores or perhaps even at (the beginning of) online used sites, although most are trashed due to privacy concerns. Then you can’t give them away. However, eventually they become somewhat rare, and although very few need them, they become a niche market for the very few who will pay, probably paying as much or more more for the shipping than for the discs. Then too, also the specialists who retrieve ‘old data’ from theses discs for those who have failed to migrate regularly. And then the present, where such amounts of storage are too trivial to sell, and greater amounts,by far, are given out at conferences as nifty wrist-wrap USB stick with a Gigabyte or two. Let’s enjoy where we’ve been and where we’ve come to be!
 

DonS

Member
Floppies: they’re such a good example of the march of progress. Initially they protected hours and hour of valuable work and as such were worth far more than their cost. Poetically speaking, let’s say they cost a dollar. Then they became more mass produced and sold for 50 cents. Eventually the market falls away and they are worth only a quarter. Then they stop selling them at retail and there is a surge of used ones in thrift stores or perhaps even at (the beginning of) online used sites, although most are trashed due to privacy concerns. Then you can’t give them away. However, eventually they become somewhat rare, and although very few need them, they become a niche market for the very few who will pay, probably paying as much or more more for the shipping than for the discs. Then too, also the specialists who retrieve ‘old data’ from theses discs for those who have failed to migrate regularly. And then the present, where such amounts of storage are too trivial to sell, and greater amounts,by far, are given out at conferences as nifty wrist-wrap USB stick with a Gigabyte or two. Let’s enjoy where we’ve been and where we’ve come to be!
Well put Tim:))
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
You should be able to purchase a USB floppy disk reader from London drugs and other such stores. Check the box to make sure that it can read Macintosh-formatted floppies before buying.
 
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