I plugged a 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Android phone, and it just worked
I plugged a 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Android phone, and it just worked
Publish Date: 2026-05-18 08:00:00
Source Domain: www.xda-developers.com
This is one of those situations where I take a second to think about how I got here.
As part of my job at XDA, I buy a lot of cables for various things, whether it’s an extra USB 3.1 cord or a few spare HDMI 2.1 cables for an HDMI switcher story I’m working on. It seems like my Amazon recommendation algorithm knows I’m into cords, because a few days ago, it suggested I buy something very strange — a $20 USB 3.5-inch floppy disk reader. Naturally, since I’m a sucker for nostalgia, I had to buy it, just to see if I could make it work with my smartphone and hear the sweet sounds of its physical disk being read. I also had no clue USB 3.5-inch drives were even a thing.
My expectations were low; I thought maybe I’d be able to get it up and running on my Windows 11 desktop PC and, after installing a few ancient drivers, on my MacBook Pro, but to my surprise, it also worked with my Pixel 10 Pro. I opened the Chuanganzhuo 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Reader and slid one of the colorful 3.5-inch floppy disks I had purchased into it (the fact that 3.5-inch floppy disks cost $30 in 2026 is wild). A flood of memories surrounding the positively ancient storage format instantly hit me.
I’m surprised the 3.5-inch floppy disk reader worked right away
All I needed to do was plug it in
Whether it was school-related projects, storing ZSNES and SNES ROMs, various DOS boot disks that let me play Indiana Jones and the Fate of the Atlantis on my parent’s aging Windows 3.1 PC, a pirated copy of Commander Keen, or an OG Doom shareware disk, I have a lot of 3.5-inch floppy disk-related memories, and that grinding noise the storage format makes when it’s being read seems to have been stored away in a special part of my brain. To me, the 3.5-inch floppy disk is more than just a save icon.
After plugging the 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Pixel 10 Pro…
