The advantages of the 3 1⁄ 2-inch disk were its smaller size and its plastic case which provided better protection from dirt and other environmental risks while the 5 1⁄ 4-inch disk was available cheaper per piece throughout its history, usually with a price in the range of one third to two thirds of a 3 1⁄ 2-inch disk. By the mid-1990s, the 5 1⁄ 4-inch drives had virtually disappeared as the 3 1⁄ 2-inch disk became the predominant floppy disk. īy the end of the 1980s, the 5 1⁄ 4-inch disks had been superseded by the 3 1⁄ 2-inch disks. A variant on the Sony design, introduced in 1982 by a large number of manufacturers, was then rapidly adopted by 1988 the 3 1⁄ 2-inch was outselling the 5 1⁄ 4-inch. The large market share of the 5 1⁄ 4-inch format made it difficult for these new formats to gain significant market share. They all shared a number of advantages over the old format, including a rigid case with a sliding metal cover over the head slot, which helped protect the delicate magnetic medium from dust and damage, and a sliding write protection tab, which was far more practical than the adhesive tabs used with earlier disks. A number of solutions were developed, with drives at 2, 2 1⁄ 2, 3 and 3 1⁄ 2 inches (and Sony’s 90.0 mm × 94.0 mm disk) offered by various companies. Originally designed to be more practical than the 8-inch format, it was itself too large as the quality of recording media grew, data could be stored in a smaller area. Throughout the early 1980s, limitations of the 5 1⁄ 4-inch format became clear. In 1988 IBM introduced a drive for 2.88 MB “DSED” diskettes in its top-of-the-line PS/2 models but this was a commercial failure. These disk drives could be added to older PC models. IBM started using the 720 KB double density 3.5-inch microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer in 1986 and the 1.44 MB high density version with the PS/2 line in 1987. In 1984, IBM introduced the 1.2 MB dual sided floppy disk along with its AT model. The 5 ¼ inch format displaced the 8-inch one for most applications, and the hard sectored disk format disappeared. There were competing floppy disk formats, with hard and soft sector versions and encoding schemes such as FM, MFM and GCR. By 1978 there were more than 10 manufacturers producing such FDDs. In 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the first 5 1⁄ 4-inch FDD. The phrase “floppy disk” appeared in print as early as 1970, and although in 1973 IBM announced its first media as “Type 1 Diskette” the industry continued to use the terms “floppy disk” or “floppy”. These disks and associated drives were produced and improved upon by IBM and other companies such as Memorex, Shugart Associates, and Burroughs Corporation. The earliest floppy disks, developed in the late 1960s, were 8 inches (200 mm) in diameter they became commercially available in 1971. While floppy disk drives still have some limited uses, especially with legacy industrial computer equipment, they have been superseded by data storage methods with much greater capacity, such as USB flash drives, portable external hard disk drives, optical discs, memory cards and computer networks. īy 2010, computer motherboards were rarely manufactured with floppy drive support 3 1⁄ 2-inch floppy disks can be used with an external USB floppy disk drive, but USB drives for 5 1⁄ 4-inch, 8-inch and non-standard diskettes are rare or non-existent, and those formats must usually be handled by old equipment. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive (FDD).įloppy disks, initially as 8-inch (200 mm) media and later in 5.25-inch (133 mm) and 3.5-inch (90 mm) sizes, were a ubiquitous form of data storage and exchange from the mid-1970s well into the 2000s. A 3.5-inch diskette’s “floppy” magnetic material, removed from its housingĪ floppy disk, or diskette, is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles.
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