You really can't say much about a the good old floppy drive... it's slow, but still useful in it's own way. They are great for disposable one-time-use storage (such as give aways), and small files (like a couple of Word documents or Excel files). And who will forget the trusty floppy when it is time to boot off it in an emergency?
CDs, you say? They are not as quickly to create as a bootable floppy. And I feel so bad just putting a 200 kb file on it, and nothing else! Mind as well put Microsoft Word to open the dang file as well! (Don't do that, kiddies!).
Anyways, however you feel about it, it's nice to keep one around no matter what. And having the
Dynex USB 2.0 external floppy drive here, what's the difference between that and this drive?
Absolutely nothing but the brand name! I would suspect that a Teac was in there, anyways, but it turns out it was a Panasonic. Well, then... the Teac is an honest to goodness Teac floppy drive. However, the cute colored cases is what seperate this drive from the rest!
A hark from the good old "flavored" Mac days, these drives look pretty darn good! I personally purchased the teal one (a blueish color) for a client's matching Mac, and it hooked up fine with it. :) It sees the drive without any drivers at all! Mac OS 9 ain't dead yet! (Um... actually, I won't go that far...)
Of course, it works with Windows PCs as well. My experience with is was exactly the same as the Dynex drive. Of course, this is a USB 1.1 drive, but when dealing with floppies, it doesn't matter!
The cord is only about a foot long, and is ready to be plugged in any available USB slot. With Windows XP, it is readily available to use as an A: drive, while certian machines can boot right off it. Again, like the Dynex, older motherboards may have trouble doing so (and some of them will work with just a BIOS update).
Performance was not very mind blowing. In fact, it is pretty much the same old, same old. Using HD Tach 2.61, here are the results:
Max throughput: 41.2 kb/sec
Min throughput: 14.5 kb/sec
Avg throughput: 34.2 kb/sec
Burst Read : 0.1 mbps
CPU Utilized : 0.8%
Not much different compared to the Dynex drive. Not much difference between these two drive and an internal Panasonic floppy drive, either.
But hey... it's all good!
Last Words
YES!
HAHA, I couldn't resist doing that again. :) But it's a floppy drive... get over it! It works like it's suppose to, and the only interesting thing is that it is a USB drive that can act like an internal drive on certain machines.
I am coming to a conclusion that all external floppy drives are the same. Until I find something that breaks the mold, this is my stereotype, and I'm sticking with it!
Good day, sir!
Nu-Image Corporation
