In article , lid says...

On 11/1/2017 10:34 AM, Ed Mc wrote:
If I purchase one of the 3.5 USB external floppy drives available, would
I be able to access the files (FAT 32) on my old floppy's, using Windows
7? I do have an old XP hard disk somewhere. Not sure if it would
recognize the USB ports though. Thanks


I received the floppy drive, which I bought online, and gave it a try.
Could see some files but could not activate them in any way. I could see
Icons of photo's but not the pictures. Sometimes I got the 'disk not
formatted' error msg., or 'Not Responding'. Used on Win7 OS and XP, same
resuts.... Oh well, a $15 lesson learned.

Like persons said .. those old floppies do not hold up well and were
never really reliable. I suspect old tape backups are about same given
my experience with stereo reel-to-reel tapes I own.