Floppy Disk History
Japan declares war on the floppy! US Nuclear weapons systems use floppy drives! Before ‘virus’ there was the ‘cloner,’ spread by floppies! Floppies in orbit! Warhol on a floppy! This was fun to research. The history of the floppy disk spans multiple decades (I still use them today in my Mirage and my vintage PCs) and multiple industries. Personal computers, synthesizers and samplers, industrial control systems, art, space ships and nuclear weapons.
Floppies were the best removable storage- better than cassettes, since they were much faster and could store more (cassette limit was around 660KB). I cashed in my childhood life insurance policy to buy a 5.25″ floppy drive for my Atari 800 in 1983. That sure beat typing my programs in each time I wanted to work on them!
In The Beginning
1970. IBM created a floppy disk prototype.
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/261/1080
1975. The Qasar M8 digital synth with 8″ floppy drive. The Fairlight CMI was based off of this!
https://120years.net/category/date/1970-1980/
June, 1978. The Apple II was released WITHOUT a floppy- a big problem. That was fixed in 1978 witha 5.25″ floppy (the Disk ][) made by Shugart (look that name up! Founded Seagate.) and with a low-cost floppy disk controller designed by Steve Wozniak.
https://ethw.org/Milestones:Introduction_of_the_Apple_II_Computer:_1977-1978
1981. Sony invents the 3.5″ floppy (OA-D30V), but very low capacity and a manual disk shutter door. Made better by a consortium which created the disks we know today, but stayed the same size.
https://www.macgeek.org/museum/sony400kdrive/
VIRUS!
1982. The first Computer Virus- Elk Cloner. Floppy boot sector virus that affected the Apple II.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/Elk-Cloner
March, 1983. IBM Personal Computer XT with a built-in floppy drive. You could even get TWO. A hard drive was built-in.
https://dosdays.co.uk/computers/IBM%20PC-XT%20(5160)/ibm5160.php
1986. The first PC Virus- the Brain floppy boot sector virus.
1987. I began using a Mac SE with a floppy containing Master Tracks Pro MIDI sequencing software. Began writing songs that appeared on my first cassette release, Cyberpunk: Night City Trax. I just had to add this!
https://digitl.bandcamp.com/album/night-city-trax
December, 1989. First Ransomware and it was on a floppy.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/nzpwe7/the-worlds-first-ransomware-came-on-a-floppy-disk-in-1989
1997. Sony digital camera (Mavica) with floppy disk storage introduced.
https://www.cameralabs.com/sony-mavica-mvc-fd5-retro-review/
December, 2004. Omniflop was released, allowing hundreds of different formats for various pieces of gear to be applied to a floppy.
http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm
The Death of the Floppy?
August, 1998. The iMac was released- the first computer to abandon the floppy drive and biggest seller of the year!
https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/06/20-years-ago-the-imac-changed-the-world
2006. Start of the HXC Floppy Emulator project.
http://hxc2001.free.fr/floppy_drive_emulator/
2010. Sony announces they will STOP making floppies.
https://www.wired.com/2010/04/sony-announces-the-death-of-the-floppy-disk/
2011. The Floppotron is invented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTRqxfnnYUQ
April, 2014. Any Warhol works from 1985 found on Amiga floppy disks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27141201
September, 2016. Compact Flash replacement for floppy disks for industrial control systems.
2018. Floppy disks (including Windows 95/98 software) found on the International Space Station.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/22/18107919/international-space-station-floppy-disks-discovery-iss
June, 2019. US Nuclear forces quite using 8″ floppies in the Strategic Automated Command and Control System. In use since the 1970’s.
https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/floppy-disks-nuclear-forces-upgrade/
June, 2022. Floppotron 3.0 introduced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCXRerqaJI
August, 2022. Japan declares war on the floppy disk.
General History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk
Early samplers had floppies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampler_(musical_instrument)
Keeping The Fires Lit
Need floppies? Have floppies to recycle? https://www.floppydisk.com/
