I took the California bar exam on a laptop; the bar examiners required a floppy drive to download my answers, but only permitted one power cord, for the main laptop. I used this little drive and it was critical that it not let me down. It worked. I should add that it is compact, light, easy to pack with the laptop, doesn't make undue power demands, and is quiet. If you need an external drive, esp. with a laptop, this little unit will do nicely. Verbatim SmartDisk Titanium 2x USB 2.0 External Floppy Disk Drive FDUSB-TM2
I always dread getting new computer hardware, as it always seems to mean hours of frustration attaching cords, uploading drivers, etc. (I'm not the most computer-literate person.) However, my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive and I have a few boxes of old floppies that I finally decided to deal with by transferring their contents to CD. I ordered this SmartDisk drive for that task. I was absolutely amazed to be able to open the box, attach the usb cord and start using it immediately (not even a power cord to mess with!). It literally took 20 seconds!! Granted, I'm not asking for a lot out of this drive, but it has performed very well. I couldn't be happier!!
This is a "so far" review, so I can't say whether or not the drive will hold up for a long period of time, but so far it has done very well.
It works great in WindowsXP and "ok" in Linux (Linux distribution=Knoppix 5.0.1). If you have WindowsXP I doubt you will have any trouble at all with this drive. You plug it in and it will pop up as A: or B: (or first available drive letter) and it will act exactly as it should. It doesn't "feel" like an external drive; in WindowsXP you plug it in and it works just as if you had an actual internal floppy drive.
Now linux was a bit more complex. Perhaps it's my lack of knowledge in Linux but I couldn't write C/C++ code to open the drive for "raw" (filesystem) writing like I could in XP. The only Linux issues were code related so the average user may not care, but just a flag to developers out there.
I'd say if you are just a regular user or developer in XP this drive will be great. Linux users should be able to have normal files read from and written to the disk, but if you're writing code to implement your own filesystem on the disk, you'll want XP.
Final notes:
- Drive is quiet (a good thing)
- Drive size is small (a good thing), power cord is only about 3 feet (may be bad for some people, but you can always get an extension)
- No external power cord is a blessing. I haven't tried it plugged into a hub though. It's using one of the USB ports that is built into the computer. I've heard that sometimes devices respond differently when plugged into a USB hub rather than the actual computer, especially for devices that run strictly off the USB power.
I bought this drive about 2 years ago at Walmart after my first USB floppy broke. I am know using it on my ibook with OSX Tiger. Its been very helpful for being compatible with all my old floppies, and being a universal standard with older PC's. My PC laptop does not have full USB support so flash drives will not work between my ibook and PC. But this drive has made it possible for my ibook and old old PC laptop to communicate.
Personally I think it was a mistake not to ship PC and Mac desktops with floppy disk drives, so i reccommend this drive for those users needing a floppy.
Now that floppy drives are becoming an endangered species -- and an expensive one, with NYC stores asking $40 and up for an external drive -- it's handy to have a compact and inexpensive USB drive that can go from computer to computer like this one. At any rate, there's not much to say about this little SmartDisk drive except that it's fast and quiet. I did have minor install problems with my laptop, but the solution was to clean the USB male plug contacts. It's possible that my unit, though new, might have sat on a shelf for a while... Then the computer recognized the drive, and all was well. As others have pointed out, the "titanium" color is the gray you and I grew up with. Otherwise the unit appears to be well-built, the "in use" light glows brightly, and eject is sure and robust. A good little drive at a good price delivered to your door.
This drive is compact and works well, but be aware that it INCLUDES a USB connection cord. I presumed that it didn't and ordered the "better together" USB a/b cord to go with it that amazon recommends. Of course, I don't need the extra cord and now I have to pay shipping to return it!
I was really concerned about how I was going to transfer files from my older Mac computer to my new iBook. SmartDisk made it simple. I just plugged it in and it simply worked. I was able to read all the floppies from my older Mac (OS 7.5.5)without a hitch. I have even plugged it into my Dell Desktop and started saving some of my Windows files on floppies. Would I recommend the SmartDisk USB Floppy, you bet. - Smartdisk - Mac - Usb External Floppy Drive - Usb Floppy Drive'
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