#floppy disk

From floppy disks to compact discs, the OGs of data storage may seem like outdated relics now, but they were once the coolest kids on the block! 5.25-inch Floppy Disk Like a time capsule from a bygone era, the 5.25-inch floppy disk was a ubiquitous sight in the late 1990s. Developed by Shugart Associates in 1976, this disk storage medium was composed of a thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, wrapped in a plastic casing, that held a significant amount of data ranging from 110 KB to 1.2 MB. [caption id="attachment_340675" align="alignnone" width="932"] Photo/ obsoletemedia.org[/caption] While the capacity was impressive for its time, the disks were relatively bulky and fragile, requiring careful handling and storage. 8-inch Floppy Disk The 8-inch floppy disk was a storage device introduced in 1971 and was one of the first floppy disk formats used in early microcomputers and minicomputers. [caption id="attachment_340676" align="alignnone" width="720"] Photo/ CERN Document Server[/caption] It was a read-only storage medium that stored data in a magnetic oxide coating on a flexible disk. The disk was housed in a protective jacket and inserted into a drive that spun the disk at a constant speed while a read head accessed the data. Read more in our articles including "Storage Drives of the Past: Do you still remember them?" and "YugaTech #TBT: The Floppy Disk".