What Is A Floppy Disk?

Date First Published: 7th March 2024

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Hardware

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Uses Of Floppy Disks
How Does A Floppy Disk Store Data?
Types Of Floppy Disks
Are Floppy Disks Still Used?

Learn about what a floppy disk is in this article.

A floppy disk is a type of disk storage device capable of holding electronic data. They are made out of plastic or metal and can hold 100 KB to 1.44 MB of data. To read and write data from a floppy disk, computers at the time included at least one floppy disk drive.

Uses Of Floppy Disks

Floppy disks were the standard method of distributing software until the mid-1990s when CD-ROM drives became more widely used. Early computers did not have CD-ROM drives or USB and floppy disks were the only way to install software or back up data. As of now, floppy disks are considered obsolete and have been replaced by CD-ROMs, DVDs, and USB drives.

How Does A Floppy Disk Store Data?

A floppy disk stores data magnetically on the surface of its circular platter. Inside the drive, a read/write head moves across the platter, reading out bits of information that have been encoded onto it. The drive then interprets these bits into words, pictures, or audio which can be read by the computer's processor.

Types Of Floppy Disks

Floppy disks were available in multiple sizes and capacities, including 8-inch, 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch versions. The first floppy disks were 8 inches in diameter, read-only, and replaced punch cards for shipping data updates to mainframes. The first that became popular amongst home users were 5.25-inch floppy disks. Eventually, smaller 3.5-inch floppy disks became more popular than larger disks.

Are Floppy Disks Still Used?

Floppy disks were a popular storage media from the 1970s to 1990s, but their popularity began to decline in the late 1990s and early 2000s because other storage devices, such as CDs, DVDs, and USB flash drives superseded them due to the larger storage capacity and data transfer speed. Since the early 2000s, computers were no longer built with floppy disk drives as users moved to CD-R and Zip drives. The rise of the internet also made it possible to transfer files online instead of storing them on a floppy disk. The latest versions of Microsoft Windows no longer include internal support for floppy disk drives because modern computers do not have them.