: Yamaha SY99 floppy disk drive broken. Can I use something else? The floppy disk drive on my Yamaha SY99 has been broken for over a decade. As a result I am unable to save anything I do (new sounds or new music) and, once

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Is there a workaround, such as connecting the synth to a PC (e.g. via MIDI cables) with some software that can bridge the gap and let me save/load data?

Yes. You can save your patches and settings by a midi-cable (midi-in-> USB) on your pc or laptop, e.g. Roland USB - midi interface exchange UM-ONE.
www.roland.com/global/products/um-one/ With a free midi software you can also save your entire songs inclusive your settings on your PC.
Edit:
Here's another solution:
Solution with borrowed floppy drive This person had a similar problem. And he was able to copy the Sys-ex data by a borrowed floppy drive. Btw. Diskettes you can still get easily secondhand (e.g. I have hundreds unused, but not thrown away!)

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adding to the excellent previous answers, a different alternative is to try to repair the floppy drive. The problem with floppies, 99% of the time is in the rubber belt from the motor drive to the disk's rotation axle. As the rubber ages it looses flexibility and gets slack or even broken. Same problem as with old cassette tape decks, vinyl players and even CD players.
If that is indeed the problem, repairing is a straight forward business. There's businesses in Ebay that sell rubber belts to all types of machines. A quick search on ebay returned, for example, this one.
If you're able to open the machine, replacing the belt is a matter of patience and handyness, but not very difficult.
I've done that operation myself a few years ago, only to find the the original belt did not even appear to be damaged, it was just out of place. I replaced it anyway, since I had ordered a new belt and there's no telling when the rubber in the old one would start to crackle. But if you have the patience you may even try to open the machince and see what is happening with the drive before even spending any money.

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Correction: MIDI was never designed initially to transmit sample data, but it was added later as an SDS standard. [This is something I've never worked with, but apparently the SY99 can sample dump over MIDI.] www.4front-tech.com/pguide/midi/midi8.html If you go that route, maybe something like this SY manager would be useful - www.fm-alive.com/pages/SYM.aspx Otherwise, if you go with the USB kit, I'd ask the kit maker for their instruction sheet/pdf to see what kind of a task it would be.
Note: I've never taken this precise model apart, so this is a generic answer.
Most Yamaha keyboards, certainly of that age, are pretty simple to strip, so long as you've got long screwdrivers [they do tend to put screws in long barrels] I'd recommend an electric driver with long bits, as they never were tempted to put too few screws in anything ;) The casing is unlikely to also be clipped together, it will probably be screws only.
Generally, you're unlikely to find odd springs that suddenly leap out at you, everything will be set pretty tidily within the case.
I'd imagine, if the kit makers did their job right, that the drive swap will be relatively simple, once you've got the 473 screws out.
Edit:
I found a service manual at www.manualslib.com/manual/998630/Yamaha-Sy99.html?page=15#manual - you're lucky, a mere 24 screws holding the bottom casing on ;-)

BTW, a quick Google shows lots of these things on Amazon for 0 or so, but according to yamahamusicians.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7440 there's one you can get for about 35.
eg www.amazon.co.uk/Gotek-SFRM72-FU-DL-Floppy-Emulator-Electronic/dp/B01B1G51P0