How about a solution like Greaseweazle ?
https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle

Surely you can find a cheap (=not really desired from collectors and retro-gamers) pc with a proper floppy controller to connect your drive. It doesn't have to be really old, rare and vintage. Just to have a floppy controller. Something like a generic P4, Celeron or Pentium G in an office computer will do the job. The Greaseweazle is of course a great solution if you want to be more involved and flexible in the future, just don't think that a suitable pc for this simple job is too hard or expensive to acquire.

And for simply reading files off DD disks, a HD drive is enough.

konc wrote on 2023-10-12, 09:23:

And for simply reading files off DD disks, a HD drive is enough.

Is it possible the OP is using a Mac? Mac DD (GCR) floppies cannot be read in a non-Apple (including all external) 1.44 meg floppy drive...

VivienM wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:54:

konc wrote on 2023-10-12, 09:23:

And for simply reading files off DD disks, a HD drive is enough.

Is it possible the OP is using a Mac? Mac DD (GCR) floppies cannot be read in a non-Apple (including all external) 1.44 meg floppy drive...

You are right, it's entirely possible that the disks are from a Mac, an Amiga or a C64 etc. I just assumed he'd have mentioned that.

If they are anything other than PC/MSDOS 720kB format disks, then a greaseweazel or catweasel will be required to read them on PC.

However, I do wonder if there if some configuration or host OS strangeness with USB floppy drives because I have one that was marked HD/1.44 only, and I have read and written 720kB disks on it just fine, on a laptop with Win7 32bit.

HoltHamlet wrote on 2023-10-12, 08:17:

Hello, […]
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Hello,

I have old floppy disks, over the time I did not realize I would need to read them on a modern computer

I bought an usb floppy disk but it can only read HD floppies

I have a floppy disk lying around somewhere but since I cannot plug it on my actual motherboard

how can I find a hw solution for this ? could not find any (pci-express?) card to use as a floppy controller
I live in europe so I cannot really find retro hw like in U.S.
thanks for your help

There still exist and available for purchase, USB floppy drives which actually do support both DD & HD floppy drives.
If you purchase on aliexpress then you have to pay a lot of attention to the details. the description should mention the drive read both DD & HD floppies.