Differences between such formats can result in capacities ranging from approximately 1300 to 1760 KiB (1.80 MB) on a standard -inch high-density floppy (and up to nearly 2 MB with utilities such as 2M/2MGUI).
The term "floppy disk" appeared in print as early as 1970, and although IBM announced its first media as the Type 1 Diskette in 1973, the industry continued to use the terms "floppy disk" or "floppy". In 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the -inch FDD.
Read/write floppy disks and their drives became available in 1972 but it was IBM's 1973 introduction of the 3740 data entry system that began the establishment of floppy disks, called by IBM the Diskette 1, as an industry standard for information interchange.
The term "floppy disk" appeared in print as early as 1970, and although IBM announced its first media as the Type 1 Diskette in 1973, the industry continued to use the terms "floppy disk" or "floppy". In 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the -inch FDD.
Read/write floppy disks and their drives became available in 1972 but it was IBM's 1973 introduction of the 3740 data entry system that began the establishment of floppy disks, called by IBM the Diskette 1, as an industry standard for information interchange.
The term "floppy disk" appeared in print as early as 1970, and although IBM announced its first media as the Type 1 Diskette in 1973, the industry continued to use the terms "floppy disk" or "floppy". In 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the -inch FDD.
By 1978, there were more than 10 manufacturers producing such FDDs.
In 1988, IBM introduced a drive for 2.88 MB Double-Sided Extended-Density (DSED) diskettes in its top-of-the-line PS/2 models, but this was a commercial failure. Throughout the early 1980s, limits of the -inch format became clear.
By 1988, the -inch was outselling the -inch. Generally, the term floppy disk persisted, even though later style floppy disks have a rigid case around an internal floppy disk. By the end of the 1980s, -inch disks had been superseded by -inch disks.
However, largely due to its simpler construction (with no metal parts) the -inch disk unit price was lower throughout its history, usually in the range of a third to a half that of a -inch disk. ===Prevalence=== Floppy disks became commonplace during the 1980s and 1990s in their use with personal computers to distribute software, transfer data, and create backups.
This was done one side at a time, by turning them over (flippy disks); more expensive dual-head drives which could read both sides without turning over were later produced, and eventually became used universally. ===-inch floppy disk=== In the early 1980s, many manufacturers introduced smaller floppy drives and media in various formats.
A variant on the Sony design, introduced in 1982 by many manufacturers, was then rapidly adopted.
Single-sided drives shipped in 1983, and double sided in 1984.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, Abacus Software (translated from the original 1983 German edition, Düsseldorf, Data Becker GmbH).
In 1984, IBM introduced with its PC-AT model the 1.2 MB dual-sided -inch floppy disk, but it never became very popular.
Single-sided drives shipped in 1983, and double sided in 1984.
IBM started using the 720 KB double density -inch microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer in 1986 and the 1.44 MB high-density version with the IBM Personal System/2 (PS/2) line in 1987.
What became the most common format, the double-sided, high-density (HD) "1.44 MB" (actually 1440 KiB) disk drive, first shipped in 1986.
These were followed in 1986 by double-sided 800 KB floppies.
IBM started using the 720 KB double density -inch microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer in 1986 and the 1.44 MB high-density version with the IBM Personal System/2 (PS/2) line in 1987.
In 1988, IBM introduced a drive for 2.88 MB Double-Sided Extended-Density (DSED) diskettes in its top-of-the-line PS/2 models, but this was a commercial failure. Throughout the early 1980s, limits of the -inch format became clear.
By 1988, the -inch was outselling the -inch. Generally, the term floppy disk persisted, even though later style floppy disks have a rigid case around an internal floppy disk. By the end of the 1980s, -inch disks had been superseded by -inch disks.
However, largely due to its simpler construction (with no metal parts) the -inch disk unit price was lower throughout its history, usually in the range of a third to a half that of a -inch disk. ===Prevalence=== Floppy disks became commonplace during the 1980s and 1990s in their use with personal computers to distribute software, transfer data, and create backups.
Most home computers from that time have an elementary OS and BASIC stored in read-only memory (ROM), with the option of loading a more advanced OS from a floppy disk. By the early 1990s, the increasing software size meant large packages like Windows or Adobe Photoshop required a dozen disks or more.
Most computing environments before the 1990s were non-networked, and floppy disks were the primary means to transfer data between computers, a method known informally as sneakernet.
In 1996, there were an estimated five billion standard floppy disks in use.
As opposed to other solutions, no new drive type or special software was required that impeded adoption, since all that was necessary was an already common USB port. ===Use in the early 21st century=== By 2002, most manufacturers still provided floppy disk drives as standard equipment to meet user demand for file-transfer and an emergency boot device, as well as for the general secure feeling of having the familiar device.
In February 2003, Dell, a leading computer company at the time, announced that floppy drives would no longer be pre-installed on Dell Dimension home computers, although they were still available as a selectable option and purchasable as an aftermarket OEM add-on.
By 2006, however, computers were rarely manufactured with installed floppy disk drives; -inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive.
By January 2007, only 2% of computers sold in stores contained built-in floppy disk drives. Floppy disks are used for emergency boots in aging systems lacking support for other bootable media and for BIOS updates, since most BIOS and firmware programs can still be executed from bootable floppy disks.
Hardware floppy disk emulators can be made to interface floppy-disk controllers to a USB port that can be used for flash drives. In May 2016, the United States Government Accountability Office released a report that covered the need to upgrade or replace legacy computer systems within federal agencies.
The government planned to update some of the technology by the end of the 2017 fiscal year. External USB floppy drives function as a USB mass storage device class.
The floppy disk symbol is still used by software on user-interface elements related to saving files, such as the release of Microsoft Office 2019, even though the physical floppy disks are largely obsolete, making it a skeuomorph. ==Design== ===Structure=== ====8-inch and -inch disks==== The 8-inch and -inch floppy disks contain a magnetically coated round plastic medium with a large circular hole in the center for a drive's spindle.
External USB floppy drives continue to function. The British Airways Boeing 747-400 fleet, up to its retirement in 2020, used 3.5-inch floppy disks to load avionics software. ===Legacy=== For more than two decades, the floppy disk was the primary external writable storage device used.
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