Memorex-Floppy Drives

The reviewer "Optimist" was right on target. None of the bad sounds, as if the drive had to struggle, occur with this drive -- like on other drives. "Optimist" was also good in the onomonopoetic "transcription" of the bad sounds. Having heard those sounds myself I can say his letters to convey the impression of those sounds was quite accurate. Which brings me to a point: I got a floppy drive from Micro Center [I interrupted my review to try to find it's name for you, can't be sure, but the $25 one on their website might be it; the box has a lot of light green, but they don't show the box, but back to the review]. Micro Center is a store that has extremely technical stuff. And usually a huge inventory. However they had only ONE floppy disk drive with USB. That drive was a disaster. It ruined every single floppy disk ever put into it.(*) I confirmed this with my Netbook computer, my Windows desktop computer and my pure DOS computer. Every computer reported major, unfixable errors on floppies that had ever been put into that piece of junk I got from Micro Center.(*) But the product you are reading about, Memorex Floppy Drive (USB), is WONDERFUL. No errors and no struggling noises. Some reviewer said it is loud. The hum may be loud, but not that much; more important is the struggling-to-do-the-job noises -- and the Memorex DOES NOT HAVE struggling-to-do-the-job noises. (*) Why, you might ask, am I such an idiot as to keep shoving things into that bad floppy drive (NOT THE MEMOREX I got later that is the subject of this review, but the other floppy drive from Micro Center)? Well, my first floppies were from my brother(TM) wordprocessor (aka "destop publisher") -- halfway between a glorified typewriter and a computer; all it has for "mass storage" is a single floppy drive. So I thought, well maybe some issues with formatting or track writing on something even though the brother(TM) does use IBM format floppies, but maybe the brother(TM) only semi-computer is ... well I don't know. The brother(TM) is not the problem. The problem is that I put the floppy into the junk floppy drive of Micro Center. Subsequent brother(TM)-made floppy discs read completely fine with the Memorex drive. Discs written with the Memorex drive were perfectly reabable on all three computers: Netbook, Windows desktop, and pure-DOS. Additionally, a brother(TM) floppy, read with the Memorex, subsequently worked quite fine when put back into its "home" device -- the brother(TM) wordprocessor's floppy. Other floppies starting with the Netbook also read & wrote fine with Memorex. Now you as a reader of the review are wondering -- "I don't care about this brother(TM) stuff" -- but you should understand the point of it: this made an EVEN MORE EXTREME TEST of the MEMOREX. Memorex was able to read & write -- error free -- floppies made from Netbook and they were fine on both desktop Windows & pure-DOS computers. But for the Memorex to read and write on original-brother(TM)-wordprocessor-written floppies such that the floppy worked on all FOUR computers: Netbook, Windows desktop, pure-DOS desktop AND the brother(TM) wordprocessor -- well, now that's a helluva test. {Just for incidental info: the Micro Center's junko floppy (sorry I don't know it's real name, but interestingly the manual has a misprint or maybe it's the box, I forget which) but the thing is a 'ploppy drive' -- yes 'pl', not 'fl'; how appropriate for that piece of junk. Anyway, the 'ploppy' drive made me lose two parts of three parts of my transcriptions (the third was on a different floppy) I was doing of "Leviathan" (movie) (fortunately I have hardcopy) (why I'm doing transcription ... review here is long already so I'll skip) and also I totally trashed a couple of MathCAD 6.0 install floppies due to the ploppy drive.} Why I told you the subject matter of what got trashed by the Mirco Center floppy drive: so you know when I say the Micro Center floppy drive caused errors, you know I wasn't just saying it. I obviously cared very much about both the "Leviathan" transcription (complete with beautiful fontography) and the MathCAD install disks. (Happily I did get MathCAD to work on netbook via file copies -- this is MathCAD 6.0e). ANYWAY: DON'T GET CONFUSED: ANYTHING BAD IN THIS REVIEW IS NOT ABOUT MEMOREX; THE BAD IS ABOUT THE ONLY USB FLOPPY DRIVE MICRO CENTER WAS SELLING (SO DO NOT GET THAT FLOPPY DRIVE OBVIOUSLY); THE GOOD IS THAT MEMOREX IS PERFECTLY RELIABLE AND FLOPPIES INSERTED INTO THE MEMOREX WERE BOTH READ & WRITTEN SUCH THAT THEY WERE PERFECTLY FINE ON 4 DIFFERENT COMPUTERS: NETBOOK, WINDOWS DESKTOP, PURE-DOS DESKTOP, AND EVEN BROTHER(TM) WORDPROCESSOR. Finally, mechanical insertion and the eject button are quite nice on the Memorex. They both feel right.