Choosing the best external floppy disk drive can be fairly easy, but there are a few things you should consider and be sure of before making a purchase. For starters, consider what it is you want to use your external floppy drive for and be sure it will work for those purposes. You should also be sure your computer and hardware properly support whatever method the external drive uses to connect. It can also be useful to look for sales on an external floppy disk drive to find one that is inexpensive, especially since other media types may be more reliable or useful for your needs.
One of the most important things you should consider as you look for an external drive is what purpose you have for the drive, so you can be sure it will work for you. One of the most common uses of a floppy disk is to reboot a computer using a boot disk. This may involve needing to start up a computer using only the basic input/output system (BIOS), especially if the operating system (OS) has become corrupted or cannot be used. In this type of situation, you should be sure to find an external floppy disk drive that will work for what you need.
An external floppy disk drive will often connect through a universal serial bus (USB) port. If you are trying to boot from a floppy disk, then you should be sure the BIOS on your computer include USB support for boot devices. In this type of case, you may be better served using a boot disk on another type of media or installing an internal floppy disk drive.
You should also be sure that any external drive you are interested in purchasing can connect properly to your computer. Most computers have a number of USB ports available, and external drives will often use this type of connection. Some drives, however, may use other connection types and you may find that you need an adapter to properly connect the drive to your computer.
An external floppy disk drive can usually be found fairly inexpensively, and you may even be able to find one on sale. As other types of media have largely replaced floppy disks in popularity, these drives have become more uncommon, and you may want to consider utilizing another form of media instead. If you merely wish to have easy, portable memory at your disposal, then a “thumb drive” or similar memory device may better suit your needs.