A look into the past: removable storage
Floppy disks or floppy diskette is a type of thin and flexible storage device that can store data. It is notable for its iconic features that are still used on modern desktop GUIs. You might remember it as the iconic symbol of the save button. The floppy disk is a medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric. Inside the square, you can find a spinning disk. These storage devices were very popular in the late 20th century to the early 21st century. It currently has limited uses, majority on legacy computers and other old equipment. In the 1980s and 1990s, floppy disks were commonplace to be used with personal computers. They had functions to distribute software, transfer data, and make back ups of computer files. The design of the floppy disks evolve throughout time becoming smaller, more compact, but storing more data.
The floppy disks were developed by a small team of engineers for IBM’s data storage project in California. It was created in 1967, but was first introduced to the market in 1971. IBM was in charge of the first production and sales of this product. It was 8 inches in size and was reported to have held enough information found to fit 3,000 punched cards.
It wasn’t until 1977 that floppy disks received major recognition and breakthroughs in its design process. It was indicated that floppy disks played a major role in the development of Apple II, which is the founding father of our current Macs. The Apple II was the first series of mass produced computers by Apple. It came with two 5–¼ inch floppy drives, which was much smaller than its 8 inch progenitor. One floppy drive holds the data of the program, while the second stores the program itself.
Floppy disks also provided utility outside of computer design. Soon people began to load resellable information into floppy disks to resell. Selling programs and intellectual property through floppy disks became a thing. This indirectly led to the development of the software industry that we see today. It also led to the development of more portable computers that we call laptops today.
IBM continued the innovation and production of floppy disks for many years. In 1984, the floppy disks were at one of its most compact times since its creation. The high density floppy disk which could store 1.2 megabytes of data on a 3–½ inch floppy drive. Of course, no technology lasts forever. The floppy disk went out of industry in the 2000s as profit margin on its sales dwindled.
The design process of the floppy disk follows its flow to become more ubiquitous and mainstream for its users. We can see through the timeline of the floppy disks that its size decreased while its storage size increased. But, exactly how does it work? Basically, a floppy disk reads and writes data on its small circular plastic medium. Similar to how recorders print images and sound on cassette tape, computers print information on floppy disks.
There are five mechanisms that are inside of the floppy drive:
Read and Write Heads: located on both sides of the diskette, its job is to read data on the circular disk and write data onto it. They are able to perform both functions.
Drive motor: provides the circular spin to the floppy drive. Usually the motor makes it spin 300 to 360 RPM. This is the most resource consuming part of the floppy disk, and of course, all motors break from usage.
Stepper motor: provides precise stopping of the disk at specific positions to record the right data that is needed. The read and write heads depend on the step motor to correctly program the position of where the data appears. It also makes sure data appears in the right position and timing.
Mechanical Frame: provides casing for the internal mechanisms and also has the eject mechanism with springs in it to allow for removal of the disk from computers.
Circuit Board: contains all of the electronic parts of the floppy drive. It controls the read and write heads and the motors.
The downside of floppy disks as compared to today’s storage devices such as the flash drive is that it is hard to maintain. Floppy disks are hard to clean and easy to break. Debris can mess with the data display of the floppy disks. Companies created cleaning kits for floppy disks so that users can occasionally clean their disks from dust and debris. Another defect is that the data stored in them are minimal. Multiple floppy disks are needed to store and run one program.
