What is a Floppy Disk?
A floppy disk is an old form of data storage, similar in function to the more modern USB drives. Often, more than one floppy was needed to install a program onto a computer. They were the main form of data storage and transfer in the 1980s and 90s, and were slowly phased out once CDs, and then later DVDs, came into existence. There are three main types of floppy drives, each able to store a certain amount of memory on them.
5 ¼ Inch Floppy Disk
The 5 ¼ inch floppy was the main form of data storage in the 1980s, though some personal computers were still made with drives capable of reading them into the 1990s. They were able to hold anywhere between 360 KB and 1.2 MB depending on the quality of the disk. Many 5 ¼ floppies were double sided, meaning that data could be written on both sides. This effectively doubled the memory of the disks, and many floppy drives in computers were designed to be double sided as well, so both sides could be accessed at once.
3 ½ Inch Floppy Disk
The 3 ½ inch floppy was the most well-known and most popular floppy disk, as it was both affordable and much larger in storage space than the 5 ¼ disk. They were capable of storing anywhere from 730 KB to 1.44 MB on a single disk. For installations of many programs onto a personal computer, many of these disks would be used. For example, Windows 3.0 was installed onto a computer via multiple disks.
Zip Drives
Zip drives were introduced in the 1990s by the Iomega Corporation. They were able to hold huge amounts of data compared to the more traditional 5 ¼ and 3 ½ disks, ranging in size from 100 MB, 250 MB, and 750 MB. However, they were quite expensive and never became popular because of the high price, despite their higher storage space.
Floppy Disks Today
Floppy disks are no longer in mainstream use, as CDs, DVDs, and USB drives are much larger in storage capability. Floppy drives, once a necessary accessory to any personal computer, are now obsolete and are no longer installed on any computer. Now, the only question is when the data storage solutions that we use today will be replaced be a new, larger and more powerful form of data storage.
Dylan Lamberti - I have been writing on-line for a period of just under two years, and have written for such sites as Demand Media Studios and Brighthub.
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