External 5.25" Floppy Drives?

R2.0 writes "Are there any external 5.25" FD's out there? My wife and I have a number of old 5.25" floppies with all sorts of interesting stuff from school - she had a Kaypro, and Lehigh had just gotten hundreds of Zenith PC's. In the interest of archival record keeping (Ok, I'm a packrat), I'd like to get this stuff off the old floppies and onto my HD, and then maybe onto CD-R. Problem: I'm out of 5.25" bays in my Dell, so I can't just put in one of those handy combo 3.5"/5.25" drives. And I can't just pop the CD player out, pop in an old drive, and do everything in one batch - I need to be able to do this a couple of disks at a time, between changing diapers, etc. Can anyone suggest an external solution to my problem? Parallel, serial, or USB; homebrewed or purchased." Ah, the endless problem of preserving data from old media. Due to the lack of use that 5.25" drives have had in the past 10 years, this might be a very hard-to-find item. Is anyone making 5.25" drives anymore?

Comments

I've got one...

[JMZero]

I've got an external "386" device (I paid like 1000 dollars for it) that I'd sell. It connects via the parallel port, or ethernet with the right drivers. As a bonus, it has 40 MEGABYTES of its own "hard disk" space and is a combo 3 1/2, 5 1/4, CD Drive.

-Dave

Have it hang out

[Chacham]

If its only a temporary solution you seek,

there is no reason for it to be sleek.

Just open the case, put the drive on the floor,

and close it all up when you need it no more.

These guys will take care of you

[iforgotmyfirstlogon]

Problems with your 5 1/4" floppy? These guys can help you out!