my floppy drive will occasionaly make grinding sounds and wont even take a floppy disk all the way in so i figure it is time to get a new one. how compatible does it have to be for your computer. i have a toshiba satellite 1105 (laptop). thank you
The Geek's Lounge is usually reserved for social talk on non-tech issues. Your post will get better responses if sent to the hardware forum. Off it goes.
Floppy drives are, by and large, compatible. However, in your case, since yours in internal - meaning that dimensions, mounting, connector positioning, color of the drive bezel, etc., are absolutely not flexible nor negotiable - you'll need an exact match.
Sounds like you've got a bad drive (heads bent - hence insertion is blocked). If it's too much trouble to replace it (it'll require expertise and labor), and you don't use your floppy often, then the easiest way around it is to get a slim USB floppy drive that draws both signal and power from the USB port (that way it won't need a separate ac adapter) - they'll go for around $20 and would be a decent workaround...
