What is floppy disks: description, characteristics and reviews

Floppy disks for most used todaycomputers are a relic of the past, but they have long been the only source of information transfer between computers. These disks are floppy disks, which in Windows were marked as "Disk 3.5 [A]". Until now, this device can be found on older computers.

History of floppics

The spread of floppy disksfor 1967, when A. Shugart of IBM invented them. At first, this device was huge - about 8 inches (more than 20 cm). Almost immediately appeared synonyms for this name, such as "floppy disk", "floppy disk". The latter name appeared later, when the floppies became smaller and reached 5.25 inches. At that time, their capacity was 360 kilobytes, which is hard to imagine today, since today the smallest files are measured in megabytes.

By the mid-1980s, the size of the floppy disk was 3.5 inches. This floppy also survived until until the final transition to various disks and flash drives.

The capacity of floppy disks could be different, becauseThe standard volume was installed on an unformatted floppy disk, and the formatting methods used were different. In this connection, formats appeared that were incompatible with each other. Macintosh used disk drives with a different coding principle when compared to IBM, which prevented the transfer of information on floppy disks between different operating systems until Apple created the drives SuperDrive, which worked in two modes.

Floppy device

Information is recorded on a thin plastica disk that is protected from above by a hard plastic that had an open area on top, covered with a special curtain, usually metal. Under the hard plastic was an anti-dust cloth. The disk below it is covered with ferromagnetic material. By analogy with the hard drive it is divided into tracks and sectors. The floppy disk has two surfaces that can be recorded at the same time (although there were also one-sided floppy disks, the SS was marked), since the magnetic heads are placed with displacement relative to each other, and therefore no recording noise is created. The disc starts moving when the motor engages with the center of the disc made of metal. Depending on where the recording goes, it performs 300-360 rpm.

The floppy had a stub that allowed or prohibited recording on the floppy.

Floppy Formats

IBM PC floppy disk formats that havethe most widespread, differed in the number of used parties, the density of recording, the number of sectors on the track and the size of the disks. The disk drive could have a single (SD), double (DD) or quarter density (QD) (this density was used in clones with 5.25-inch floppy disks of 640 and 720 kilobytes), as well as high density (HD), which differed from the previous one an increased number of sectors, an increased density (ED), in which floppy disks had 36 sectors (standard - 18 sectors) and a volume of 2880 kilobytes, but there were many negative reviews, and therefore they were not distributed.

At 5.25 and 8 "floppy disk capacity could be from160 to 180 kilobytes. 8-inch floppy disks had only one side for recording. 5.25-inch floppy disks for DD drives already had a volume of 320-360 kilobytes, which in the 3.5-inch floppy disk increased to 720 kilobytes (SD and QD for the 3.5-inch floppy was missing), the QD for 5.25 "the volume was 640-720 kilobytes, HD 3.5" - 1440 kilobytes, 5.25 "- 1200 kilobytes.

There were deviations from these standards,for example, for the Iskra-1030 computers (1031), 320/360 KB diskettes were used that were actually SS / QD, but their boot sector was marked as DS / DD, which resulted in the IBM PC drive not being able to read them, as well as the floppy drive of these IBM PC floppy disks.

Advantages of a floppy disk

• The recording is carried out by a simple algorithm.
• Low cost.
• Availability and versatility (in recent times all computers were equipped with a floppy disk drive).
• The optimal volume for transferring information between unconnected computers.
• Re-writability.

Disadvantages of the floppy

• While the volume was optimal fortransfer of text files, spreadsheets, it was small for photos, pictures, the capacity of a floppy disk (1.44 megabytes) was poorly suited for transferring software, especially when its sizes began to grow with horrendous speed.
• Constant scrip when writing.
• Slow recording speed.
• Unreliability (if one sector was damaged, the entire disk could stop reading).
• Short service life (usually after several uses the disc was damaged in large part due to the fact that the plastic surface protected it unreliably).

These drawbacks led to the fact that most users left negative feedback about floppy disks, which gradually led to the creation of new media and the disappearance of floppy disks.

Disable the floppy disk

As a rule, such a safe extractiona floppy disk is not required. On the floppy disk drive there is a button, with which the disk was removed after the end of its noise, which indicates the end of the recording.

In this case, the question of how to disablefloppy disk, can be viewed in relation to the BIOS of the computer. So, going into the BIOS and going to its section of the Standart CMOS Features, you can see the Drive A or Drive B symbols depending on the type of floppy disk used, but the information on capacity and size is shown in front. If you want to disable it, you need to press the "+" button until the word "None" appears in place of the capacity and size, then you need to press F10 to save the changes and reboot.

Floppy Emulators

The emergence of these programs was due to the fact,that floppy disk drives began to gradually disappear from computers, while some programs for writing files floppy-disk required. Some accounting software refused to save the file anywhere except on a floppy disk.

One of the most commonprogram-emulators was the program Virtual Floppy Drive, which provided a complete integration of the drive, which was virtual, with the operating system Windows to its version of Vista, while it was possible to create virtual floppy disks to which you could place the necessary information, provided support for virtual 3.5 "and 5.25" floppy disks supporting capacities from 160 KB to 2.88 MB. These diskettes could be formatted, and also, which is important for that time, run in the console view.

There were a lot of such floppy disk emulators, but all of them were characterized by approximately the same algorithm of action.

Disappearing floppy disks

The edge of the cover that covers the plastic disc,periodically bent, which caused the disk to become stuck in the drive, the spring that was supposed to lead the casing to its original state could be displaced, which resulted in the disk being not closed by the casing as it should have been closed. When a floppy disk dropped to the floor, the disk often failed. All this required further development.

But new times have come with new technologies. There were recorded and re-recorded first CDs, then DVDs, etc., then there were flash drives that had a lower cost per unit of capacity, greater longevity, more rewriting cycle. All this has led to the fact that in new computers the floppy disk drives were increasingly out of order, and gradually the disks practically disappeared from our use.

Crenellate bushes Floppy Disk

With the almost complete disappearance of floppy disks intoday's life their name has not disappeared. Shrimp Flappy Disc can be used as a low hedge, on stony terraces, along with shrubs and trees, rock gardens and as a curb. It has bright pink semi-double flowers with yellow in the middle on a shrub up to 40 cm tall. This shrub loves light, well tolerates frosts and winters.

Finally

Floppy disks were portableA data store that was used when there was no network between computers and for some programs that automatically saved data to a floppy disk. Later, for such programs began to use diskette emulators. Flexible disks developed very slowly, their design and capacity were imperfect, which contributed to their disappearance. But the name "Floppy Disc" was left in the title of one of the decorative carpets.