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Thread ID: 34100 2003-06-04 06:53:00 3 1/2 Floppys caffy (2665) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
149675 2003-06-04 06:53:00 Why are those 3 1/2 floppy disks called 'floppy'?

because they aren't exactly 'floppy' . . . . ?

Was the name passed on from those old floppy disks? - anyone know what i'm talking abt? those disks were really thin and about 15cm by 15cm . . . .
caffy (2665)
149676 2003-06-04 06:57:00 Yes - from the 5 1/4" floppy disks...

Can I ask why you want to know?
nicnz (2273)
149677 2003-06-04 06:59:00 Oh I was just curious :) had been pondering over this... caffy (2665)
149678 2003-06-04 07:03:00 Because the disk itself is floppy. Slide back the cover and have a look.

Where as a harddisk uses aluminium disks.
bmason (508)
149679 2003-06-04 07:05:00 If you rip one to bits you'll find that the disk is indeed floppy, unlike the platter in your "hard" drive, which is hard (I don't suggest you rip this apart to prove this, but its an interesting exercise if youve got an old one lying about. andy (473)
149680 2003-06-04 09:23:00 They took over from the 5 1/4 inch disks (originally 360k, later 1.2M) which were standard on PCs until around 1988. Those had themselves taken over from 8 inch beasts (also floppy), which in turn replaced big single (hard) platter removable plastic cartridges from the seventies which from my distant memory housed a 10 inch disk with an enormous 250 kB of storage. stevee (1780)
149681 2003-06-04 11:12:00 > They took over from the 5 1/4 inch disks (originally
> 360k, later 1.2M)

Excuse me, but your intro to computers must have missed out the "good old days"

5-1/4 floppies were 160k and single sided when I bought my first MSDOS based PC. (Dos 1.1)

180k single sided and 360k double sided floppys were introduced with DOS 2.
But who needed 360k anyway, that was massive storage then.
godfather (25)
149682 2003-06-04 11:23:00 Hi GF,

Mind you I did use Digital (DEC) RX01 and RX02 floppy disk based Qbus and Unibus systems, these floppies were 8inch single/or double-sided. The RX01 was 256k using the IBM 3740 format and the RX02 was 512k using a DEC RX02 proprietary format. Ah the 'old days' eh? Mind you won't go on about the IBM 1401, 360/158 /168, the Burroughs......

Cheers, Babe.
Babe Ruth (416)
149683 2003-06-04 11:43:00 Can I sell you the ferrite core memory from a Burroughs E-8000?
2 k of 12-bit words I think. Circa 1969
Still have it, and it most likely contains the last thoughts it had.
godfather (25)
149684 2003-06-04 11:49:00 GF,
Bought a fully functioning PDP-8E with 16K of core memory, ASR-33 teletype with 10cps paper read/punch various cards A/D etc.... Boxes of papertape programs RIM loaders Focal69 etc etc $10.

Still plays StarTrek (although you need a fair bit of imagination... ;-)

Cheers, Babe.
Babe Ruth (416)
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