Yeah they're no longer in manufacturer but it's not like you can't still get sealed new old stock on eBay for less than 10 bucks.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2023
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...a floppy-to-USB emulator. These devices cost around $275 each, replace the floppy drive with a simple USB port, and are custom-made by a handful of companies.
seems like the existence of these makes it all a bit of a non issue right?
Still kind of an expensive solution to things you can buy for cheap, and there are always people who don't know or don't have access to those handful of companies.
given the failure rates of old floppies and the speed at which they cost of buying them is increasing, it won't be long before this is the cheaper solution. it's an old, slow and inefficient technology which always was going to need to be transitioned away from and the article pitches it as a kind of crisis, but as these transitions go it seems like a fairly stable and successful one?
USB-Floppy emulators from GOTEK are available for as cheap as £15 on AliExpress. They're not certified for aviation use, of course, but for everything else they're awesome. Old computers, oscilloscopes, etc.