What are Floppy Disks?
Floppy disks are data storage devices composed of a disk of thin magnetic storage medium covered in a plastic case. You will require a floppy disk drive in order to read or write data from a floppy disk. The first varieties of floppy disks were stored in bendable jackets. Floppy disks were the most widely used data storage medium of the early 1990s because they were simple to use, easy to carry, and were compatible with all the computer systems. The floppy disks were introduced in 8″ format and subsequently 5.25 format. However, both these formats were susceptible to problems. Due to this reason, the 3.5 format was introduced and the physical packaging of these floppies was considerably revised. Why are Floppy Disks Used Even Today? The low data storage space capacity is one of the major reasons for the decline of floppy drive era. Therefore, floppy disks these days are used only for exchanging small to medium digital files. However, email is fast replacing floppy disks in this area. B
Those who are still chained to cassette recorders for data storage would probably like to get to know them better. Those of us who use them every day rarely give these plain black utilitarian devices a second thought. Yet, while this article introduces floppy disks to new users, it may also offer some tips to experienced disk users. Two components make up a floppy disk: the disk and its jacket. The disk itself is made of thin mylar, coated on both sides with the same iron oxide used on magnetic tapes. The jacket is a tough polymer (You cannot remove the disk from its jacket.) Blank disks come in several varieties. The most common is single-sided (SS) single-density (SD). They also come in SS double-density (DD) and double-sided (DS), SD and DD. It’s not a well-known fact, but: all disks, from any manufacturer, are made by the same process. They’re graded in testing-only those that pass the most rigorous tests get to be DSDD disks. This means that all SD disks are coated on the reverse
Floppy disks are small, removable, media storage devices. They record data onto a thin, circular magnetic film encased in a flat, square plastic jacket. Floppy disks are somewhat antiquated, having been replaced by memory sticks and re-writable CD storage devices. Original floppy disks were 8-inch floppies used in 1971-1975, but the first floppy disks that were widely used commercially were 5.25-inch disks. These floppy disks were quite flexible and required a 5.25-inch floppy drive. The disks could store up to 360 kilobytes (KB) of data, or about one third of a single megabyte. Later, high-density floppy disks held 1.2 megabytes (MB) of data. These floppy disks were widely used until about 1987. As the technology of floppy disks improved, the next generation was smaller and eventually held more data. The newer 3.5-inch floppy disks also had hard shell cases for protection, making them less floppy. The term floppy disk was still used for many years, however. Some 3.5-inch floppy disks
