There is such an information medium - a diskette. The information capacity of this repository is small, and this led to the fact that it is almost not used. Although there are prospects for the revival of the named technology when applying several other principles for constructing the information carrier. Now let's find out what kind of information capacity a floppy disk has, when it started to be used, and what dimensions it has.
Magnetic tape
The technology described is based on magnetic tape. It is a portable storage medium where data is recorded and stored. The magnetic tape is placed in a protected plastic case, which is additionally covered with a ferromagnetic layer. To read the data recorded on it, use the drive.
In domestic literature, the abbreviation GMD can be used to designate it. It stands for “flexible magnetic disk”. This is what a diskette is. The information capacity of this medium depends on the creation technology used. But let's talk about everything in order.
Eight inches
That is how much the first diskette had in diameter. Her information capacity was less than 100 KB. The development of their company began IBM after it introduced in 1960 its first hard drive. By 1967, the first model was created, with which the era of portable drives began.
In the first samples, a casing with a fabric gasket was used as protection. After a large number of tests, tests and additions in 1971, this invention was presented on the market. The 8-inch floppy disks sold then were made of a simple plastic circle, which was covered with iron oxide and placed in a cardboard envelope. Its significant drawback was the presence of serious restrictions.
This was due to the fact that initially such data storages were created for microprograms, as well as software necessary for diagnosing the state of large computer systems. The use of drives allowed the operators of electronic computing systems to quickly perform the necessary actions. To do this, it was only necessary to download the desired set of commands that the diskette had.
Information capacity at that time made it possible to interact quite effectively with computers. There was also the potential for its increase, due to the fact that the data area was initially only on one side of the diskette.
5.25 inch size
Disks with this size were introduced by the Shugart Association in 1976. Initially, their volume was about 100 kilobytes of information. But over time, with the help of corporations and companies, media were released where there was a two-way recording. In addition, placement density was doubled. The result of these manipulations was that the amount of information grew to 1.2 MB.
This development was actively promoted by IBM, which led to their wide distribution. The most popular were three types of floppy disks:
3.5 inch floppy disk
The most advanced samples at the moment were offered by Sony in the early 1980s. Of course, there were quite a few different competitive offers, but IBM settled on a 3.5-inch sample. In 1984, the format of floppy disks was established, and a more advanced and improved invention was released.
It had several fundamental differences. Among them - the presence of a hard plastic case and the closing of the window for reading heads by a movable metal shutter. Changes to this generation of floppy disks have not been made for two decades. And in March 2011, Sony officially announced that they were stopping the production and sale of these drives.
A diskette served the people for a very long time - although the information capacity of this storage was not large, it was more than enough for storing electronic text documents or tables. Although, it is likely that in some places they are still used. Indeed, for the sake of justice, it’s worth saying that the author’s computer also has a drive, and a pack of 3.5-inch long-used ones looks at the person who writes these words. But modern computer models, released in the last few years, no longer have the hardware ability to read from these media.
Why stopped using these storage media
The main reason for this is the small amount of information stored (the information capacity of the diskette is 1.44 MB). Relatively low reliability also played a role. So, often it was enough to drop it once - and the floppy disk could be thrown away (but this is not the rule, only a frequent pattern).
In addition, presumably, there were many different reasons for its failure. Many noticed that after a trip to the subway, their carriers stopped working. Others claimed that sunlight was enough for this (there is a logical question - how did such citizens think?) Or cold weather. Reliable is the information that diskettes do not like moisture, as well as significant temperature changes (as well as going beyond the recommended range).
But be that as it may, the information capacity of the diskette is maximum - only 1.44 MB, which is not enough now even to load one medium music file into mp3. The maximum of modern use is a set of text documents and tables with numbers.
Features
Maybe you have a floppy disk at hand? We are not interested in information capacity right now, just look at the two small holes below (windows). One is always in the open state (it simply does not close). But the second may look different. The recording ability depends on it.
So, when the second window is open, it means that nothing can be written to or deleted from the diskette. But once you open it, it will immediately become possible. Here is a security mechanism for these media.
Comparison with other carriers
Let's do a short review on the media. What is the information capacity of a floppy disk, hard drive, CD, DVD, and flash drive? The first type of media we have already successfully considered.
According to hard drives, we can say that the first of them had a 2MB storage volume. Now you can see 3 TB carriers on sale.
CD manufacturing technology is not very promising, since it was not possible to get a result of more than 700 MB. But compared to floppy disks, it was a breakthrough.
Optical DVD media are usually available in 4.7 GB, although those with dual-sided recording feature more than 8 GB.
And data storages built using flash technology can boast a significant amount of stored information and small size. They can be placed from several units to hundreds of GB of information. As you can see, although not much time has passed, the amount of stored data has increased thousands and millions of times.