A little more than forty years ago, the first computer floppy disks appeared, and thirty years ago the well-known 3.5-inch floppy disks came out. And they are still being produced! Nowadays, to transfer information, they use flash drives and external hard drives, and all previous developments are almost consigned to oblivion. IT. TUT.BY studied which removable media left a noticeable mark in computer history, and which could become the standard for many years to come.

Here we will consider only floppy disks and cartridges with magneto-optical disks that were inserted into readers, and we will not disassemble ordinary disks and tape drives with magnetic tape.

Floppy Disc 8 "

Developer: IBM

Year of issue: 1971

Dimensions: 200x200x1 mm

Size: from 80 Kb at the beginning of the release to 1.2 Mb

Distribution: ubiquitous

In 1967, IBM under the leadership of Alan Shugart organized a group to develop new floppy disks. In 1971, the first eight-inch floppy disk was launched on the market: a round flat floppy disk in a plastic sleeve measuring 20x20 cm. Due to its flexibility, the novelty was named Floppy Disc - "floppy disk". At first, the capacity was only 80 kilobytes, but over time, the recording density was increased, and after five years the floppy disks could already contain more than a megabyte of information.

5.25 "Diskette (Mini Floppy Disk)

Developer: Shugart Associates

Year of issue: 1976

Dimensions: 133x133x1 mm

Size: from 110 Kb at the beginning of release to 1.2 Mb

Data exchange rate: up to 63 Kb / s

Distribution: ubiquitous

Two years after the release of the first eight-inch floppy disks, Alan Shugart founds his own company Shugart Associates, which three years later presented a new development - a five-inch floppy disk and a floppy drive. The company also noted the development of the SASI standard, which was later renamed to SCSI. Floppy disks were single-sided and double-sided, and many computer designers used their own formatting and writing algorithms, which made discs written in one drive unreadable in another. Schoolchildren of the period of the decline of the USSR and the first years of independence of the Union republics loaded computers from such floppy disks and played the simplest games. By the mid-eighties, the capacity of floppy disks had been increased tenfold. And Shugart Associates, by the way, later changed its name to the well-known Seagate.

Floppy disk 3,5 "(Micro Floppy Disk)

Developer: Sony

Year of issue: 1981

Dimensions: 93x89x3 mm

Size: from 720 Kb at the beginning of release up to 1.44 Mb (standard), up to 2.88 Mb (Extended Density)

Data exchange rate: up to 63 Kb / s

Distribution: ubiquitous

In 1981, Sony introduced a completely new type of floppy disk: the three-inch floppy disk. They weren't really flexible anymore, but the name remained. Now the magnetic circle was enclosed in plastic three millimeters thick, and the hole for the heads was covered with a spring shutter. These shutters, especially metal ones, loosened and bent during operation, and often came off inside the drive and remained there. Floppy disks became very popular, and various computer manufacturers equipped their machines with them. Sony has produced several models of digital cameras, which were recorded on floppy disks. By 1987, the standard capacity of floppy disks had grown to 1.44 MB, and a little later, thanks to an even higher recording density, it was possible to "squeeze out" up to 2.88 MB. Savvy students in hostels (including Belarusian ones) for money "overclocked" floppy drives up to 1.7-1.8 MB, while they could be read in ordinary floppy drives. In spite of everything, three-inch floppy disks are still produced. Floppy disks are almost obsolete, but many programs still use the "Save" icon to look like a floppy disk.

Amstrad Disc 3 "(Compact Floppy Disc, CF2)

Developer: Hitachi, Maxell, Matsushita

Year of issue: 1982

Dimensions: 100x80x5 mm

Size: from 125 Kb at the beginning of the release to 720 Kb

Distribution: quite wide - mainly computers Amstrad CPC and Amstrad PCW, also Tatung Einstein, ZX Spectrum +3, Sega SF-7000, Gavilan SC

Amstrad, a renowned computer manufacturer, decided to go its own way and promoted a different 3-inch floppy disk from Hitachi. Even more surprising is the fact that the company was founded by the same Alan Shugart, who developed the first floppy disks. The magnetic disk itself inside the case took up less than half of the free space - the rest fell on the media protection mechanisms, which is why the cost of these disks was quite high. Despite the fact that these floppies were more expensive than standard 3.5-inch floppy disks with less memory, the company has been promoting them for quite a long time and quite a lot of success: more than 3 million pieces of Amstrad CPC computers were produced alone.

Bernoulli box

Developer: Iomega

Year of issue: 1983

Dimensions: Bernoulli Box: 27.5x21 cm, Bernoulli Box II: 14x13.6x0.9 cm

Size: from 5 MB at the beginning of the release to 230 MB

Data transfer rate: up to 1.95 Mb / s

Distribution: small

Iomega, later one of the main "whales" of the removable media market, developed the original Bernoulli Box in 1983. In it, the floppy disk rotates at a high speed (3000 rpm), as a result of which the disk surface directly under the read head bends and does not come into contact with it: read / write operations are performed through an air cushion. The equations for describing these air currents were proposed by the prominent Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli in the 18th century. Thanks to this development, the company gained fame, although the first products did not differ in either capacity or portability: the first cartridges were 27.5x21 cm in size and contained only 5 megabytes of information. The second generation decreased in size by about four times, and by 1994 the amount of memory had grown to 230 megabytes. But by that time, magneto-optical disks began to be actively promoted.

Magneto-optical drive (MO)

Developer: Sony

Year of issue: 1985

Dimensions: 133x133x6 mm, 93x89x6 mm, 72x68x5 mm for MiniDisc

Volume: 650 MB to 9.2 GB for 5-inch, 128 MB to 2.3 GB for 3.5-inch, 980 MB for "minidisks"

Data exchange rate: up to 10 Mb / s

Distribution: significant

Magneto-optical discs look like standard and reduced-size CDs in a box. But at the same time they have an important difference: the recording is carried out in a magnetic way, that is, first, the laser heats the surface to a high temperature, and then the magnetization of the sections changes with an electromagnetic pulse. The system possesses great reliability and resistance to mechanical damage and magnetic radiation, but provided a low recording speed and had a high power consumption. Both disks and drives were expensive, so magneto-optics did not receive very wide distribution like compact disks. Distribution was also hindered by the fact that for a very long time such discs allowed data to be recorded only once. But in some industries (for example, medicine), where the preservation of a large amount of information is required for a long time (and MO-disks "live" up to 50 years), the technology has gained acceptance. Sony still produces magneto-optical discs in both small and large sizes. MiniDisc music discs, presented by the same Sony company in 1992, are a special case of magneto-optical discs. If at first they allowed recording only music, then modifications MD Data (1993) and Hi-MD (2004) provide recording of any data with a volume of 650 MB and 980 MB, respectively. "Minidisks" are also still in production.

Wheels SyQuest

Developer: SyQuest

Year of issue: around 1990

Dimensions: 5.25 "(approx. 13x13 cm) and 3.5" (approx. 9x9 cm)

Sizes: 5.25 ": 44, 88 and 200 MB; 3.5": 105 and 270 MB

Distribution: Medium (predominantly with MacIntosh computers)

Founded in 1982 by former Seagate employee Syed Iftikar, QyQuest entered the market with removable hard drives for the IBM XT. The firm later developed several different cartridge disk systems. The most popular are the 5.25-inch SQ400 / SQ800 / SQ2000 cartridges (44, 88 and 200 MB), as well as the 3.5-inch SQ310 / SQ327 (105 and 270 MB). Their main disadvantage, apart from size, was that later systems were not fully compatible with earlier ones. Thus, drives for 200MB discs could only read 88MB discs, but could not write to them. The younger systems could neither read nor write to the older ones. In the year of release, 44MB drives cost about $ 100. A variety of incompatible standards and the absence of a normal trade name for a particular technology did not allow the discs to gain wide popularity. Magneto-optical disks provided more capacity, and Iomega's Zip disks soon followed.

Floptical

Developer: Insite Peripherals

Year of issue: 1991 (Insite Floptical), 1998 (Caleb UHD144, Sony HiFD)

Dimensions: 93x89x3 mm

Size: 21 MB (Insite Floptical), 144 MB (Caleb UHD144), 150-200 MB (Sony HiFD)

Data exchange rate: up to 125 Kb / s

Distribution: very small

Another magneto-optical technology, but of a different kind. The information is read by the magnetic heads, and the optical subsystem (infrared LEDs) ensures the accuracy of the head positioning. Thus, instead of the usual 135 tracks per inch, like floppy disks, they achieved a recording density of 1250 tracks per inch. Floptical drives were compatible with regular 3.5-inch floppy disks, and Floptical drives were initially marketed as the successor to floppy disks, but this did not happen. Seven years later, Caleb Technology developed a similar system, the Caleb UHD144, and Sony released Sony HiFD discs. Both of these systems were also compatible with regular floppy disks and both were also named as floppy disks, but they faced a loud failure in the market, because by that time the market for removable media of 100-250 MB was taken over by Iomega Zip disks.

Zip Drive (Iomega Zip)

Developer: Iomega

Year of issue: 1994

Dimensions: 98x98x6 mm

Size: from 100 MB at the beginning of the release to 750 MB

Data exchange rate: about 1 Mb / s

Spread: very wide

Compact discs were still expensive and did not allow erasing records (CD-RWs appeared only in 1997), magneto-optical discs were expensive and gluttonous, and the capacity of ordinary floppy disks was no longer enough. Iomega has refined the magnetic recording technology and introduced Zip disks: slightly larger than floppy disks, and with a capacity of as much as 100 megabytes. The head was brought to the disk not from the top, but from the side, and the data exchange rate was about 15 times faster than that of conventional floppy disks. Disk drives were produced in several formats - both external and internal, graceful in shape and blue, which could be placed flat on the table or vertically. The technology quickly gained popularity. Despite the clicks of death, which were a sign of disk failure, the zips sold successfully. In the year of release, floppy drives cost $ 100 and discs $ 20 each; later, 250 MB drives (round in shape, but the same dimensions) and 750 MB drives (of the usual shape) appeared. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the popularity of Zip drives has declined, but Iomega still sells 100-megabyte drives for $ 9 apiece, and "seven hundred and fifty" - for $ 12.5. Many ancient technology enthusiasts still use epoch-making devices.

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Evolution of the modern floppy disk

Most of the technologies used in personal computers were developed either after the advent of the PC, or specifically for them. One of the few exceptions is a floppy disk, aka floppy disk, aka floppy disk. Largely thanks to the floppy disk, the emergence of personal computers became possible, but it was thanks to personal computers that the floppy disk became so widespread. All of the following about capacities and formats applies to IBM-compatible personal computers unless otherwise noted. This is due to their much wider distribution, especially in Russia. Therefore, below you will not find descriptions of exotic formats for marking floppy disks - yes, fans of the Macintosh or Amiga platforms will not be offended by me.

The first prototype floppy disk was developed by IBM in 1967. Thirty-two years is a very respectable age for computer technology, but, apparently, "my old lady is still alive." Let's try to trace her life in development.

The time of birth of our heroine belongs to the initial period of the development of mini- and microcomputers. They required a storage medium that was different from the then bulky drives on magnetic and punched tapes, hard disks and punched cards (cardboard cards with rows of numbers and a complex pattern of machine-punched holes - something like brass discs for a mechanical piano. - Approx. ed.). The period of infancy and childhood, that is, the development of technology, took four years, so the first commercial drives were offered by IBM in 1971 - the same year that Intel introduced the 4004 processor. there was no preliminary intention to use a floppy drive on a future "Intel-compatible" personal computer. But this accident once again demonstrates the parallel development of various technologies that led to the appearance of the first personal computers.

The development of our heroine, a floppy disk, in some ways corresponds to the stages of maturation of homo sapiens, and in some respects it is completely opposite to it. A person gains intelligence with age, his capabilities increase; the same can be said for floppy disks, the capacity of which increases as technology improves. But the "growth" of floppy disks has a completely opposite tendency - with age, it decreases.

Our heroine was born in the size (more precisely, in diameter) 8 inches (203.2 mm), which is not enough for a person, but for a medium with a capacity of a little more than 100 KB at that time it was just right. Named at birth the Flexible Disk, it quickly got a few slang names. For example, floppy disk "alias" comes from the English word flop ("flap your wings"). Indeed, the sound produced by waving a 20x20 cm envelope is similar to the noise produced by a bird of appropriate dimensions flying up. A diskette such a medium began to be called a little later, after the first reduction in size. This is perhaps the record for the number of names for the same technology.

Initially, a floppy disk consisted of two parts: a carrier and an envelope. The media was a circular plate with a central reinforced edge hole and one or more index holes cut from a wide, thick double-sided magnetic tape. The envelope was made of plastic, smooth on the outside and covered with nap on the inside, and had holes for a spindle that rotated the media, a slot for the heads and an optocoupler for reading the index.

At the very beginning, the division of floppy disks into sectors was rigid, that is, a separate index hole was made for each sector. Subsequently, the number of index holes was reduced to one corresponding to the beginning of the track. Therefore, floppy disks such as Hard Sectored (hard partitioning into sectors) and Soft Sectored (one index hole) coexisted for some time. Due to internal reserves, the volume of the media was increased from 100 to 256 KB, which remained the physical limit for standard 8-inch floppy disks. Until the end of the 70s, floppy disk drives were installed mainly in mini-, and then in microcomputers (the PC we are accustomed to belongs precisely to the class of microcomputers. - Approx. ed.). As a result, the volume of production of floppy drives was small, and therefore prices for them went off scale for $ 1000.

The first commercial personal computer to use 8-inch floppy disks was the Apple II, shown as a prototype in 1976. However, just a few months earlier, Shugart had announced a 5.25-inch floppy drive at a reasonable price of $ 390. However, 8-inch floppy disks have been around for a long time, and the designs of the drives shine with variety. For example, in the Rainbow Personal Computer (DEC), to reduce cost, the two devices shared a common head drive so that only one floppy disk could be accessed at a time. By the way, to the question of longevity. 8-inch floppy disks are still being produced: who does not believe, you can check the website of the company Imation (http://www.imation.com, formerly a division of 3M).

So, in 1976 there was the first reduction in the size of the floppy disk from 8 to 5.25 inches. Its volume briefly became equal to 180 KB, which was clearly not enough, so floppy disks soon appeared, recording on which was made from both sides. They were called Double Density, although it was not the density that was increased, but the volume. It was these drives that were installed in the personal computer IBM PC, which was released in 1981.

As the volume of programs and data grew, it became clear that the volume of a 360 KB floppy disk was clearly insufficient. A new format was developed and, accordingly, new floppy disks and drives. For the manufacture of floppy disks with a volume of 1.2 Mbytes, improved magnetic materials were used, which made it possible, while reducing the track width by half and increasing the recording density, nevertheless, a satisfactory signal level from the read head was obtained. By doubling the number of tracks exactly (from 48 to 96), it was possible to maintain backward compatibility, that is, a 1.2 MB floppy disk drive could read a 360 KB floppy disk. Interestingly, there were no cutouts or holes on the floppy disk with which the drive could determine its type; this information was recorded in the table of contents.

However, having reached a decent (and practically maximum for this technology) density, the 5.25-inch floppy disk still suffered from "childhood diseases", that is, insufficient mechanical strength and the degree of protection of the carrier from external influences. Through the hole for the head block, the surface was easily dirty, especially if the floppy disk was not stored in an envelope. The floppy disk was literally flexible: you could roll it up in a tube and ... then throw it into the nearest trash can. The inscriptions on the sticker could only be done with a soft felt-tip pen, since a ballpoint pen or pencil pushed through the envelope material. So it was time for the soft disk to take on a hard shell.

In 1980, Sony demonstrated a new standard 3.5-inch floppy disk and drive. Now it has become difficult to call it flexible or floppy - "clapping". Solid hard plastic housing and no index hole provide mechanical protection to the media. The only remaining hole for the heads to access the media is covered by a spring-loaded metal shutter. To protect against accidental overwriting, there is not a sealed cut-out, like on a 5.25-inch floppy disk (try to find the necessary piece of black sticky paper at the right time!), But a movable flap, which is part of the body structure. The 3.5-inch floppy disk was originally 720KB (Double Density, DD) and later expanded to 1.44MB (High Density, HD).

It was such a drive (and only one) that was installed in computers of the sensational and rather disastrous because of the incompatible innovations of the IBM PS / 2 series of computers. Subsequently, this standard, due to obvious advantages, replaced 5.25-inch floppy disks. True, the more convenient Sony standard floppy disks in a hard plastic case were outperforming 5-inch drives for a long time in terms of price / capacity ratio, and the compatibility problem had been making itself felt for a long time: 3.5-inch drives could not be found everywhere.

The latest evolutionary refinement of the floppy disk was undertaken by Toshiba in the late 1980s. By improving media technology and recording methods, the floppy disk capacity has been doubled to 2.88 MB. However, this format did not take root for a number of reasons. The high baud rate accepted in the drive of this format (more than 1 Mbit / s) was not supported by most of the previously released controllers and chipsets designed for the speed of 500 Kbps, that is, to use the new drive, it was necessary to purchase a corresponding card. The cost of such a floppy disk is high, at a few dollars, compared to about 50 cents for a typical 1.44 MB floppy disk. And finally, the inertia of the huge mass of drives for 1.44 MB floppy disks that were already available by that time did not allow the market to swing towards 2.88 MB media - the use of a non-standard format could complicate exchange with the outside world.

Anatomy of a floppy disk

Like any other magnetic disk media, a floppy disk is divided into concentric tracks. The tracks, in turn, are divided into sectors. The movement of the head for access to different tracks is carried out using a special head positioning drive, which moves the magnetic head unit in the radial direction from one track to another. The various sectors within a track are accessed simply by rotating the media. It is interesting that the numbering of tracks starts from "0", and sectors - from "1", and this system was later transferred to hard drives.

The principle of recording information on a floppy disk is the same as in a tape recorder: there is a direct mechanical contact of the head with a magnetic layer applied to an artificial film - mylar. This is the reason for the low read / write speed (the medium cannot move quickly relative to the head), low reliability and durability (after all, mechanical erasure, wear of the medium occurs). Unlike a tape recorder, recording is carried out without high-frequency bias - by reversing the magnetization of the media material to saturation.

As already noted, initially the marking of an 8-inch floppy disk into sectors was rigid, that is, the beginning of each sector corresponded to an index hole, the passage of which through an optocoupler caused an electrical impulse. This simplified the design of the controller (no need to track the beginning of each sector) and the drive (no need to maintain high rotation speed stability), but limited the increase in capacity due to internal reserves and reduced durability. Subsequently, thanks to the progress of microelectronics, the number of index holes was reduced to one corresponding to the track header, and the sector headers were recognized by the controller. There is no index hole in 3.5-inch floppy disks; synchronization is performed solely by reading headers.

At first, the positioning of the head was most often carried out using the "stepper motor-screw-nut" mechanism. The block of heads was mounted on a carriage moving along guides parallel to the radius of the floppy disk. In the carriage, there was a hole through which the screw passed, and on the hole there was a protrusion that entered the thread on the screw and played the role of the thread section of the nut. The stepper motor rotated the lead screw, moving the head assembly in the radial direction by means of the nut in one step per one track. On an 8-inch floppy disk, only such a mechanism could provide accurate positioning of the carriage with its long stroke (about 60 mm). After the appearance of smaller floppy disks (5.25 and 3.5 inches), a different kinematic drive scheme was developed, which is still used today. It is based on a flexible elastic metal strip, one end fixed on the carriage, and the other on a drum mounted on the stepper motor shaft. When the motor shaft (and the drum) turns, the strip is wound or unwound, with its other end moving the carriage with the block of heads progressively along the radius of the floppy disk.

The general principles of the design of the block of heads of classic floppy disks have undergone few changes. Their peculiarity lies in the presence of two tunnel erase heads located on the sides behind the recording / reproduction head. The role of these heads is to exclude the mutual influence of information recorded on adjacent tracks. To illustrate their work, you can use the following example: one person sprinkles sand on the path, and two following him sweep in all the sand that has fallen over the edges of the path.

The drives, which should replace the classic floppy disk, use even more complex heads, which must interact with two different media, sometimes even based on different principles of operation.

The diskette still has time to catch a cold at the funeral of its "killers"

So, the evolutionary development of the floppy disk ended due to the fact that technology had reached its limit. The period of revolutions has come, and, as in the political revolution, every revolutionary knows best what the "revolutionized" users need, and acts in accordance with it. The result is many formats that differ from each other, so that compatibility between all these devices is really only ensured by the fact that they can work with a 1.44 MB floppy disk. The "killers" of the floppy disk line up: elbowing and interfering with each other. Let's list only the "loudest" names of these would-be killers:

• The LS-120 (Laser Servo) is the brainchild of Mitsubishi Electronics America and Winstation Systems, has a capacity of 120 MB and a maximum transfer rate of 4 MB / s (for SCSI interface). It can also be connected via the IDE interface. Like Sony's new 200MB HiFD drive, this drive uses different heads to handle 1.44MB floppy disk and high-capacity media. A magnetic head with a "laser sight" is used to read / write 120 MB media. That is, the positioning of the head is carried out in the same way as it happens in CD-ROM drives, but only along the service tracks specially printed during the manufacture of the carrier, which cannot be rewritten. On the surface of an LS-120 floppy disk, 2,490 tracks per inch can fit, versus 135 tracks per inch for a conventional 1.44 MB floppy disk. An analogue of the LS-120 in principle of operation and volume, SuperDisk Drive was developed by Imation (formerly a division of 3M).
• The HiFD (High Capacity Floppy Disk) diskette and drive are jointly developed by Sony, TEAC, Alps and Fuji. At a spindle speed of 3600 rpm, a transfer rate of about 600 KB / s is provided (according to other sources, Sony HiFD performance reaches 3.6 MB / s - testing of our laboratory will show. - Approx. ed.). The cartridge capacity is 200 MB.
• The UHC-31130 drive was invented by Mitsumi Electric and Swan Instruments.
• The Ultra High Density (UHD) drive from Caleb Technology Corp. has a capacity of 144 MB. According to the developers, this drive with the IDE interface provides a sevenfold increase in performance compared to a traditional floppy drive. Caleb UHD has a declared data transfer speed of 970 KB / s, costs about $ 70 and in the future it is planned to increase the storage capacity to 540 MB.
• Samsung's Pro-FD has a capacity of 123MB and a transfer rate of 625KB / s. Only self-aligning magnetic technology is used for positioning.

The sheer abundance of technology and formats gathered at the floppy's "funeral" suggests that rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated. The reason for the wide popularity (maybe forced, since there is no and cannot be a replacement for it in the current situation) of a floppy disk is precisely that it is possible not to check the presence of a certain type of drive in the company where the data is sent: you do not need to ask the secretary for a long time whether they have Zip or what magneto-optics they use. According to Disk / Trend, about 100 million 1.44MB floppy drives were sold last year.

The floppy drive not only did not die, but did not even weaken its positions - in terms of sales in pieces, it is 12 times stronger than all its competitors combined, including the Iomega Zip.

Therefore, my personal opinion is this: if anyone manages to bury a floppy disk, then not all of these "gravediggers" - they repel each other more, trying to take possession of the inheritance of the culprit of the event, than they are doing business. Moreover, they already have a competitor possessing the main qualities of a floppy disk, namely: complete and absolute compatibility and mass character. This refers to CD. As the prices for rewritable discs and rewritable discs and related drives come down, they will become more widespread. Their main advantage is the "handicap" of hundreds of millions of already installed drives and full compatibility with each other.

A standard floppy drive has a transfer rate of 62 KB / s and an average seek time of 84 ms. This, along with the ISA bus (to which 1.44 MB drives were connected until recently), is a serious limitation of their performance. Even very slow (by the standards of high-density drives) LS-120 class drives have a seek time of about 70 ms, and a data transfer rate of up to 565 KB / s.

ComputerPress 8 "1999

- Igor (Administrator)

A floppy disk or flexible magnetic disk (HMD) is a magnetic storage device with the ability to read and write information many times. It is a square structure with a plastic disc with a magnetic surface inside. The box itself, inside which this disc is located, is made of either hard or soft plastic. Reading and writing data is performed using a special drive, which used a magnetic head for these actions (in some ways, the prototype of today's hard drives).

Earlier in various system errors one could come across the mention of "floppy-disk". If you have seen this, then we are talking about floppy disks. The first floppy disks were already 8 "in size, but gradually they reached 3.5" (there are options for 2 "). The first variations allowed us to store as much as 80 KB of data. The last widespread variant allowed to save 1.44 MB. At one time, each of these volumes represented a lot of space.

Of the notable features of this carrier, one can single out:

1. Floppy disks had to be periodically formatted to preserve the properties of the magnetic surface of the disk. The same method was used to repair them.

2. Some of the floppy disks have write protection - a small hole in the box. If this hole is not covered, then recording cannot be performed. This point was often confused, as there was some illogicality.

3. Despite the fact that the disc is called flexible, it cannot be bent. However, you cannot touch the disc itself and so on either.

4. The floppy disk must not be removed during reading or writing, as in this case the data could easily be damaged. When reading and writing, it was clearly audible how the drive moves the head.

5. Since the information is stored on a magnetic disk, the floppy disk should not be stored near magnets or devices that create a magnetic field. In a sense, it is easy to quickly erase information from floppy disks, it is enough to have a strong magnet.

6. Many floppy disks usually came with paper labels or were already pasted on so that you could write what was stored on the diskette.

7. Floppy disks have been actively used for 40 years - a fairly significant period.

8. At one time, it was floppy disks that played the role of a hard disk, since computers did not have their own data storage device for permanent storage.

9. Previously, a lot of programs and toys could fit on floppy disks (for example, in the era of 286 - 486 computers).

Today, it is quite difficult to find a floppy disk, since it practically went out of industrial production. Affected by the problem of data volume. The fact is that the maximum size of data that can be stored on such a medium is 2.88 MB, which is very small with today's data volumes.

The section is very easy to use. In the proposed field, just enter the desired word, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Also here you can get acquainted with examples of the use of the word you entered.

The meaning of the word floppy disk

floppy disk in crossword dictionary

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

diskette

S, g. (specialist.). Flexible magnetic disk, data carrier for computer processing. Soft, hard d.

adj. floppy, th, th.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

diskette

an envelope cassette with a floppy disk. There is a hole in the center of the floppy disk for mounting on a floppy drive. It is used mainly in personal computers for storing information, incl. and programs.

Wikipedia

Diskette

Diskette, flexible magnetic disk- removable media used for multiple recording and storage of data. It is a disc placed in a protective plastic case, covered with a ferromagnetic layer. A floppy drive is used to read floppy disks.

In domestic developments there was an abbreviation - KMT corresponding to the term Floppy disk.

The device for working with KMT, respectively, is called NGMD- "floppy disk drive".

Floppy disks usually have a write protection feature, through which you can provide read-only access to data. Floppy disks were widespread from the 1970s to the late 1990s, replacing magnetic tapes and punched cards. At the end of the 20th century, floppy disks began to give way to more capacious CD-R and CD-RW, and in the 21st century to more convenient flash drives.

An intermediate option between them and traditional floppy disks are more modern floppy disk drives using cartridges - Iomega Zip, Iomega Jaz; as well as, for example, LS-120 and others, which combined a classic magnetic read / write head and a laser used to aim it.

There was also a family of drives called magneto-optical disks. They are not completely magnetic, although they use cartridges that are shaped like floppy disks.

Examples of the use of the word floppy disk in literature.

Reaching out across the table, Artman handed him a thin plastic floppy disk.

While a firewall can protect against unauthorized access to critical data, it does not prevent employees from copying data to tape or floppy disk and taking it out of the network.

I remembered how in 1995, having met Serezha Burashnikov, and not yet knowing about his ability to dive and emerge, I printed my first book in his room, how diskette ended.

While the apparatus was preparing for the jump, Geller assembled floppy disk all the accumulated information, adding the message Lauder to the already prepared files.

Kidnapper floppy disks Lieutenant Colonel Lukin, a friend of Ivanov, who looked at them at his request on the computer, and the right hand of Pyotr Semyonovich, Major Sivashov, had already dropped out of this list at that time.

This is our salvation, - Cosette suddenly shouted, - what seemed to us how the cosmos was formed - in fact, the floppy disk, besides, Mama Doka Lisanka probably connected anti-layer forces, and how the supposedly stars are washed away is, in fact, cleansing the computer of viruses.

Among them could be a message from Trade, Petroleum or someone else, for whom any information about floppy disk was extremely important.

O floppy disks know: Ivanov, he, General Trofimov, and his trusted deputy Major Proskurin, General Pyotr Semyonovich, Captain Borets, the mafia in the person of its leader Pope and his closest assistants and those who handed these floppy disks to Pyotr Semyonovich.

One of the oldest devices for storing information on a personal computer is a floppy drive or, for short, FDD (Floppy Disk Drive). This device, widely used during the 1970s and 2000s, is now rarely found in modern computers. Nevertheless, in some cases, you can still see a floppy drive installed in an old PC. In addition, external floppy disk drives are sometimes used, which are connected to the computer through the I / O ports.

The first floppy disk drive and floppy disk were 8 inches wide and were invented by IBM engineer Alan Sugart in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he also developed a 5.25-inch floppy disk and a drive for reading it. In 1981, Sony developed a 3.5-inch floppy disk and drive. Initially, the capacity of such a floppy disk was 720 KB, but later its capacity was doubled.

There have been repeated attempts to improve floppy disks based on the 3.5-inch format. For example, in 1987 a 2.88 MB floppy disk drive was developed, and at the end of the 1990s. - LS-120 standard with even larger disk capacity - 120 MB. However, all these modifications have not become widespread, largely due to the high cost of drives and media.

Principle of operation

FDDs work a lot like hard drives. Inside the floppy disk, just like inside the hard drive, there is a flat disk with a magnetic layer applied to it, and information from the disk is read using a magnetic head. However, there are some differences. First of all, a floppy disk is not made of a hard material, but a flexible polymer film, similar to a magnetic tape film. This is why this type of disk is called floppy. In addition, the floppy disk does not spin constantly, but only when a request from the operating system comes in to read information.

The advantage of FDD in comparison with a hard drive is the removable media. However, floppy drive also has many drawbacks. In addition to the extremely low operating speed, this is the low reliability of information storage, as well as the low storage capacity - about 1.44 MB for 3.5-inch floppy disks. True, when using non-standard formatting methods, the capacity of the floppy disk can be slightly increased, but, as a rule, this leads to an even greater decrease in the reliability of the record.

Varieties

In personal computers such as the IBM PC, two main varieties of FDDs were used - 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch. Both types of floppy disk drives are designed for different types and sizes of floppy disks and are not compatible with each other. This situation is different from that of optical drives, which can read both 3.5 "and 5.25" discs. At one time, there were also 8-inch FDDs, but already in the 80s. such drives fell out of use. Around the 1990s. and 5.25-inch floppy drives were finally out of use. 3.5-inch floppy drives lasted longer, until the late 2000s, and even now they can be found occasionally in some places.

Comparative sizes of internal 8, 5.25, and 3.5-inch drives

Examples of Floppy drives in order of priority: 8-inch, 5.25-inch, and 3.5-inch

5.25-inch floppy disk is a disk in a cardboard box resembling an envelope and has a slot for a read head. Such a floppy disk fully justifies its name "flexible", since its body can be bent by hand without much effort. However, it is not recommended to intentionally bend the floppy disk too much, as this will almost inevitably lead to its failure.

A 3.5-inch floppy disk lacks this drawback. In it, the magnetic disk is enclosed in a hard plastic case and it is not so easy to bend it with your hands. In addition, the 3.5-inch floppy disk has a special metal shutter that hides the slot for the read head. Another feature of a floppy disk is the presence of a switch that blocks writing to the disk. The standard 3.5-inch floppy disk has a capacity of 1.44 MB, which is more than the maximum 5.25-inch floppy disk capacity of 1.2 MB.

Examples of floppy disks are from left to right 8, 5.25, and 3.5.

The design of the 3.5 "FDD also differs from the design of the 5.25". If, when inserting a floppy disk into the slot of a 5.25-inch drive, the user needs to fix the floppy disk by turning the lever, then the 3.5-inch one is fixed in the drive automatically, and the floppy disk is ejected back using a special button.

As with many other drives, there are mobile versions of floppy drives — external floppy drives. An external floppy drive is convenient because it does not take up space in the system unit, especially if you rarely need to use floppy disks. A similar FDD drive can be connected to a PC using a USB connector or LPT connector.

Application

Although hard drives appeared in the first IBM-compatible personal computers, nevertheless, no computer could do without a device for removable drives. A floppy drive became such a device, which quickly gained popularity due to the simplicity and low cost of both the drive itself and the storage media - floppy disks.

However, in some cases, a floppy drive could completely replace a hard drive. When the author of these lines got the first IBM-compatible computer, he did not have a hard drive, let alone an optical drive, but only a 3.5-inch floppy drive and a set of floppy disks with software provided by the PC seller. At the same time, the computer was fully functional. Of course, there was no question of using Windows 3, or of launching some voluminous programs, but when using MS-DOS, one could deal with most of the programs and games existing at that time (early 90s). This suggests that floppy disks are capable of satisfying the user's basic storage needs. In addition, floppy disks were once indispensable in the case when it was necessary to restart the computer for a preventive check or install a new OS.

Configuring a floppy drive in BIOS

There are several options in the BIOS that allow you to customize the floppy disk drive settings. For example, the option allows you to disable the floppy drive controller if not in use in the system, thereby freeing up one system interrupt. Also, in some BIOSes, you can manually set the type and size of the drive's media, as well as disable writing to floppy disks.

Conclusion

Today, many users may not know what a floppy drive looks like, or even a regular floppy disk. Their functions were taken over by memory cards and flash drives. In most system units, a floppy drive is only reminiscent of the 3-inch external bay left for them, and in Windows operating systems - the unused first letters of logical drives (A and B) reserved for floppy drives. However, floppy disk drives are often found in older computers. In addition, floppy drives can be useful when booting a PC in order to carry out preventive measures for computer maintenance or when installing an OS.