Wanted: Parallel Port or USB 5.25" drive

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:YsKDe.32183$zY4.11626@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
| Anyone know where I can find a parallel port 5.25" drive? Preferably
| 360k (for reading some VERY old disks), although I might be able to
live
| with a1.2 meg drive. I think that Microsolutions [Backpack] made one,
| but I've not been able to locate one.
|
| If anyone knows of a USB 5.25" drive that would be even better, but to
| the best of my knowledge no such animal exists. I've taken apart
| several USB 3.5" drives to see if I could use the controller with a
| 5.25" drive, but all of them that I've seen have been "integrated" USB
| devices.

5.25" external FDDs have been obsolete for over 10 years and most had
some sort of proprietary cable connection.

All of the external aftermarket drive cases that I've seen are either
SCSI, IDE or USB. None of these are designed to work with a FDD.

Try looking for a Serial or Parallel 5.25" external drive on Google or
eBay. Old MAC external FDDs may have had some kind of SCSI connection
that you could use with a SCSI PCMCIA Card.

Google is your friend. Out of curiosity, I did a quick search for
"external +5.25" +fdd +floppy" and got pages of hits.

Here's an eBay listing that may be what you are looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d [...] category=4
4958&ssPageName=WD1V&rd=1

Why not get a 5.25" internal FDD and temporarily plug it into a desktop
PC?

I ordered my 1995 Dell PC with a dual 3.5"/5.25" FDD. I still have the
drive in another old PC. I've used the 5.25" FDD for a grand total of
2-3 times since then but I was able to get the data I needed.

Good luck

Chas.