Floppy Disk ~ COMPUTERSEASY

February 13, 2011

Floppy Disk

Also known as a Diskette. The most common magnetic data storage medium used on computer is a floppy disk. These are made of an ultra thin, circular, Mylar plastic and coated with magnetic material. Floppy disks are commonly used as secondary storage and backup memory in a personal computer. These disks are very thin and flexible. It is cheaper than any other storage devices and portable. Data can be written (or) erased on a floppy disk. In 1971, IBM introduced the 8 inch floppy disk, 1976, 5.25 (5¼) inch floppy disk were introduced by Shugart Associates and another most popular 3.5 (3½) inch floppy disk introduced Sony in 1980. The 3.5 (3½) inch floppy used in the ’A’ drive and the older 5.25 (5¼) inch floppy used in the ’B’ drive. The capacity of a 5.25 (5¼) inch floppy typically holds 1.2 mega bytes of information and each 3.5 (3½) inch floppy holds 1.44 megabytes of information. The advantage of floppy disks is that they can be removed from the computer and the data taken to another computer system.

There are three types of Floppy Disks available they are :

3.5" Floppy Disk
Capacity 1.44 Mb (Megabytes)
Introduced : Sony (1980)