The dimensions of the floppy disk are 3.5 centimeters. The evolution of removable media: from floppy disks to magneto-optics. Floppy disk drives

Floppy disks are a thing of the past for most computers in use today, but they long time served as the only source of information transfer between computers. These disks are floppy disks that are labeled "Disk 3.5 [A]" in Windows. Until now, this device can be found on old computers.

Floppy history

Floppy disks began to spread when A. Shugart of IBM invented them. In the beginning, this device was huge - about 8 inches (over 20 cm). Synonyms for this name appeared almost immediately, such as "floppy disk", "floppy disk". The latter name appeared later, when floppies became smaller and reached 5.25 inches. At that time, their capacity was 360 kilobytes, which is even difficult to imagine today, since today the smallest files are measured in megabytes.

By the mid-80s of the last century, the size of the floppy disk was 3.5 inches. This diskette existed until the final transition to various discs and flash drives.

The capacity of the floppy disks could vary, as the standard size was installed on an unformatted floppy disk and the formatting methods were different. In this regard, formats appeared that were incompatible with each other. The Macintosh company used floppy drives with a different coding principle for writing than IBM, which made it impossible to transfer information on floppy disks between different operating systems until Apple created floppy drives. SuperDrive, which worked in two modes.

Floppy disk device

Information is recorded on a thin plastic disk, which is protected from above by hard plastic, which has an open area on top, closed by a special shutter, usually metal. There was a dust-proof wipe under the hard plastic. The disc underneath is covered with a ferromagnetic material. By analogy with a hard drive, it is divided into tracks and sectors. The floppy disk has two surfaces that can be written to simultaneously (although there were also single-sided floppy disks, marked SS), since the magnetic heads are located offset relative to each other, and therefore, no interference is created during recording. The disc begins to move when the motor engages with the center of the disc, made of metal. Depending on where the recording is going, it makes 300-360 rpm.

The floppy disk had a stub that allowed or denied writing to the floppy disk.

Floppy disk formats

The most common floppy disk formats differed in the number of sides used, recording density, the number of sectors per track, and the size of the disks. The drive could have single (SD), double (DD), or quarter density (QD) (this density was used in clones with 5.25-inch floppy disks of 640 and 720 kilobytes), as well as high density (HD), which was different from the previous increased number of sectors, extended density (ED), in which the floppy disks had 36 sectors (standard - 18 sectors) and a volume of 2880 kilobytes, but there was a lot of negative reviews, and therefore they did not spread.

5.25 and 8 "floppy disks could have capacities ranging from 160 to 180 kilobytes. 8" floppy disks had only one side for writing. 5.25 "floppy disks for DD-drives already had a volume of 320-360 kilobytes, which is 3, A 5-inch floppy disk increased to 720 kilobytes (there was no SD and QD on a 3.5-inch floppy disk), for a 5.25 "QD, the volume was 640-720 kilobytes, for an HD 3.5" - 1440 kilobytes, 5.25 " - 1200 kilobytes.

There were deviations from these standards, for example, for Iskra-1030 (1031) computers 320/360 kB floppy disks were used, which were actually SS / QD, but their boot sector was marked as DS / DD, which led to the fact that the IBM drive The PC could not read them, nor could the disk drive of these computers, the floppy disk of the IBM PC.

The advantages of a floppy disk

The recording is carried out according to a simple algorithm.
Low cost.
Availability and versatility (in recent times, all computers were equipped with a floppy drive).
The optimal volume for that time for transferring information between unconnected computers.
Rewritability.

Disadvantages of floppies

While the volume was optimal for carrying text files, spreadsheets, it was small for photos, pictures, the capacity of a floppy disk (1.44 megabytes) was poorly suited for transfer software, all the more so when its size began to grow with terrifying speed.
Constant squeak during recording.
Slow write speed.
Unreliability (if one sector was damaged, the entire disk could stop reading).
Short service life (usually, after several uses, the disc was damaged largely due to the fact that the plastic surface did not protect it reliably).

These shortcomings led to the fact that most users left negative reviews about floppy disks, which gradually led to the creation of new storage media and the disappearance of floppy disks.

Disconnect the floppy disk

As a rule, such safe extraction no floppy disk required. The floppy drive has a button with which the floppy disk was removed after the end of the noise it produced, which indicated the end of the recording.

In this case, the question of how to disable the floppy disk can be considered in relation to Computer BIOS... So, by going into the BIOS and going to its Standart CMOS Features section, you can see the designation Drive A or Drive B depending on the type of floppy disks used, on the contrary, information about the capacity and size is indicated. If you need to disable it, you need to press the "+" button until the word None appears instead of the capacity and size, after which you need to press F10 to save the changes and reboot.

Floppy disk emulators

The appearance of these programs was due to the fact that floppy drives began to gradually disappear from computers, while some programs for writing files required a floppy disk. Some accounting programs refused to save the file anywhere other than to a floppy disk.

One of the most common emulation programs was the Virtual Floppy Drive program, which provided full integration of a floppy drive, which was virtual, with operating system Windows before its Vista version, while it was possible to create virtual floppies on which it was possible to place necessary information, support for virtual 3.5 "and 5.25" diskettes, supporting capacities ranging from 160 KB to 2.88 MB. These floppy disks could be formatted, and also, which is important for that time, run in a console form.

Many such floppy disk emulators have been released, but all of them were characterized by approximately the same algorithm of action.

The disappearance of floppy disks

The edges of the casing covering the plastic disc were periodically bent, which caused the floppy disk to get stuck in the drive, the spring that was supposed to drive the casing into the initial state, could move, which led to the fact that the disk was not covered by the casing as it should have been. If a floppy disk fell to the floor, the disk would often fail. All this required improvement.

But new times have come with new technologies. CDs appeared and rewritable first, then DVDs, etc., then flash media appeared, which had a lower cost per unit of capacity, more durability, a large number of rewriting cycles. All this led to the fact that in new computers the complete set of floppy drives was more and more absent, and gradually floppy disks practically disappeared from our everyday life.

Cinquefoil Floppy Disc

With the almost complete disappearance of floppy disks in today's life, their name has not disappeared. Floppy Disc can be used as a low hedge, on rocky terraces, together with shrubs and trees, rock gardens and as a curb. It has bright pink semi-double flowers with yellowness in the middle on a bush up to 40 cm high. This shrub loves light, tolerates frosts and winters well.

Finally

Floppy disks were a portable data storage used in the absence of a network between computers and for some programs that automatically save data to a floppy disk. Later, floppy disk emulators began to be used for such programs. Floppy disks developed extremely slowly, their design and capacity were imperfect, which contributed to their disappearance. But the name "Floppy Disc" was left in the name of one of the decorative cinquefoil.

Evolution of the modern floppy disk

Most of the technologies used in personal computers were developed either after the advent of the PC, or specifically for them. One of the few exceptions is a floppy disk, aka floppy disk, aka floppy disk. Largely thanks to the floppy disk, the emergence of personal computers became possible, but it was thanks to personal computers that the floppy disk became so widespread. All of the following about capacities and formats applies to IBM-compatible personal computers unless otherwise noted. This is due to their much wider distribution, especially in Russia. Therefore, below you will not find descriptions of exotic formats for marking floppy disks - yes, fans of the Macintosh or Amiga platforms will not be offended by me.

The first prototype floppy disk was developed by IBM in 1967. Thirty-two years - for computer technology age is very respectable, but, apparently, "my old woman is still alive." Let's try to trace her life in development.

The time of birth of our heroine belongs to the initial period of the development of mini- and microcomputers. They required a storage medium that was different from the then bulky drives on magnetic and punched tapes, hard disks and punched cards (cardboard cards with rows of numbers and a complex pattern of machine-punched holes - something like brass discs for a mechanical piano. - Approx. ed.). The period of infancy and childhood, that is, the development of technology, took four years, so the first commercial drives were offered by IBM in 1971 - the same year that Intel introduced the 4004 processor. there was no preliminary intention to use a floppy drive on a future "Intel-compatible" personal computer. But this accident once again demonstrates the parallel development of various technologies that led to the appearance of the first personal computers.

The development of our heroine, a floppy disk, in some ways corresponds to the stages of maturation of homo sapiens, and in some respects it is completely opposite to it. A person gains intelligence with age, his capabilities increase; the same can be said for floppy disks, the capacity of which increases as technology improves. But the "growth" of floppy disks has a completely opposite tendency - with age, it decreases.

Our heroine was born in the size (more precisely, in diameter) 8 inches (203.2 mm), which is not enough for a person, but for a medium with a capacity of a little more than 100 KB at that time it was just right. Named at birth the Flexible Disk, it quickly got a few slang names. For example, "alias" for floppy disk comes from the English word flop ("flap your wings"). Indeed, the sound produced by waving a 20x20 cm envelope is similar to the noise produced by a bird of appropriate dimensions flying up. A diskette such a medium began to be called a little later, after the first reduction in size. This is perhaps the record for the number of names for the same technology.

Initially, a floppy disk consisted of two parts: a carrier and an envelope. The media was a circular plate with a central reinforced edge hole and one or more index holes cut from a wide, thick double-sided magnetic tape. The envelope was made of plastic, smooth on the outside and covered with nap on the inside, and had holes for a spindle that rotated the media, a slot for the heads and an optocoupler for reading the index.

At the very beginning, the division of floppy disks into sectors was rigid, that is, a separate index hole was made for each sector. Subsequently, the number of index holes was reduced to one corresponding to the beginning of the track. Therefore, floppy disks such as Hard Sectored (hard partitioning into sectors) and Soft Sectored (one index hole) coexisted for some time. Due to internal reserves, the volume of the media was increased from 100 to 256 KB, which remained the physical limit for standard 8-inch floppy disks. Until the end of the 70s, floppy disk drives were installed mainly in mini-, and then in microcomputers (the PC we are accustomed to belongs precisely to the class of microcomputers. - Approx. ed.). As a result, the volume of production of floppy drives was small, and therefore prices for them went off scale for $ 1000.

The first commercial personal computer to use 8-inch floppy disks was the Apple II, shown as a prototype in 1976. However, just a few months earlier, Shugart had announced a 5.25-inch floppy drive at a reasonable price of $ 390. However, 8-inch floppy disks have been around for a long time, and the designs of the drives shine with variety. For example, in the Rainbow Personal Computer (DEC), to keep costs down, the two devices shared a common head drive so that only one floppy disk could be accessed at a time. By the way, to the question of longevity. 8-inch floppy disks are still being produced: who does not believe, you can check the website of the company Imation (http://www.imation.com, formerly a division of 3M).

So, in 1976 there was the first reduction in the size of the floppy disk from 8 to 5.25 inches. Its volume briefly became equal to 180 KB, which was clearly not enough, so floppy disks soon appeared, recording on which was made from both sides. They were called Double Density, although it was not the density that was increased, but the volume. Such drives were installed in personal computer IBM PC, released in 1981.

As the volume of programs and data grew, it became clear that the volume of a 360 KB floppy disk was clearly insufficient. Was developed new format and, accordingly, new floppy disks and drives. For the manufacture of floppy disks with a volume of 1.2 Mbytes, improved magnetic materials were applied, which made it possible, while reducing the track width by half and increasing the recording density, nevertheless, a satisfactory signal level from the read head was obtained. By doubling the number of tracks exactly (from 48 to 96), it was possible to maintain backward compatibility, that is, a 1.2 MB floppy disk drive could read a 360 KB floppy disk. Interestingly, there were no cutouts or holes on the floppy disk with which the drive could determine its type; this information was recorded in the table of contents.

However, having reached a decent (and practically maximum for this technology) density, the 5.25-inch floppy disk still suffered from "childhood diseases", that is, insufficient mechanical strength and the degree of protection of the carrier from external influences. Through the hole for the head block, the surface was easily dirty, especially if the floppy disk was not stored in an envelope. The floppy disk was literally flexible: you could roll it up in a tube and ... then throw it into the nearest trash can. The inscriptions on the sticker could only be done with a soft felt-tip pen, since ball pen or the pencil pushed through the envelope material. So it was time for the soft disk to take on a hard shell.

In 1980, Sony demonstrated a new standard 3.5-inch floppy disk and drive. Now it has become difficult to call it flexible or floppy - "clapping". Solid hard plastic housing and no index hole provide mechanical protection to the media. The only remaining hole for the heads to access the media is covered by a spring-loaded metal shutter. To protect against accidental overwriting, there is not a sealed cut-out, like on a 5.25-inch floppy disk (try to find the necessary piece of black sticky paper at the right time!), But a movable flap, which is part of the body structure. The 3.5-inch floppy disk was originally 720 KB (Double Density, DD), and then grew to 1.44 MB (High Density, HD).

It was such a drive (and only one) that was installed in computers of the sensational and rather disastrous because of the incompatible innovations of the IBM PS / 2 series of computers. Subsequently, this standard, due to obvious advantages, replaced 5.25-inch floppy disks. True, the more convenient Sony standard floppy disks in a hard plastic case were outperforming 5-inch drives for a long time in terms of price / capacity ratio, and the compatibility problem had been making itself felt for a long time: 3.5-inch drives could not be found everywhere.

The latest evolutionary refinement of the floppy disk was undertaken by Toshiba in the late 1980s. By improving media production technology and recording methods, the floppy disk capacity has been doubled to 2.88 MB. However, this format did not take root for a number of reasons. The high baud rate accepted in the drive of this format (more than 1 Mbit / s) was not supported by most of the previously released controllers and chipsets designed for the speed of 500 Kbps, that is, to use the new drive, it was necessary to purchase a corresponding card. The cost of such a floppy disk is high, at a few dollars, compared to about 50 cents for a typical 1.44 MB floppy disk. And finally, the inertia of the huge mass of drives for 1.44 MB floppy disks that were already available by that time did not allow the market to swing towards 2.88 MB media - the use of a non-standard format could complicate exchange with the outside world.

Anatomy of a floppy disk

Like any other magnetic disk media, a floppy disk is divided into concentric tracks. The tracks, in turn, are divided into sectors. The movement of the head for access to different tracks is carried out using a special head positioning drive, which moves the magnetic head unit in the radial direction from one track to another. The various sectors within a track are accessed simply by rotating the media. It is interesting that the numbering of tracks starts from "0", and sectors - from "1", and this system was later transferred to hard drives.

The principle of recording information on a floppy disk is the same as in a tape recorder: there is a direct mechanical contact of the head with a magnetic layer applied to an artificial film - mylar. This is the reason for the low read / write speed (the medium cannot move quickly relative to the head), low reliability and durability (after all, mechanical erasure, wear of the medium occurs). Unlike a tape recorder, recording is carried out without high-frequency bias - by reversing the magnetization of the media material to saturation.

As already noted, initially the marking of an 8-inch floppy disk into sectors was rigid, that is, the beginning of each sector corresponded to an index hole, the passage of which through an optocoupler caused an electrical impulse. This simplified the design of the controller (no need to track the beginning of each sector) and the drive (no need to maintain high rotation speed stability), but limited the increase in capacity due to internal reserves and reduced durability. Subsequently, thanks to the progress of microelectronics, the number of index holes was reduced to one corresponding to the track header, and the sector headers were recognized by the controller. There is no index hole in 3.5-inch floppy disks; synchronization is performed solely by reading headers.

At first, the positioning of the head was most often carried out using the "stepper motor-screw-nut" mechanism. The block of heads was mounted on a carriage moving along guides parallel to the radius of the floppy disk. In the carriage, there was a hole through which the screw passed, and on the hole there was a protrusion that entered the thread on the screw and played the role of the thread section of the nut. The stepper motor rotated the lead screw, moving the head assembly in the radial direction by means of the nut in one step per one track. On an 8-inch floppy disk, only such a mechanism could provide accurate positioning of the carriage with its long stroke (about 60 mm). After the appearance of smaller floppy disks (5.25 and 3.5 inches), a different kinematic drive scheme was developed, which is still used today. It is based on a flexible elastic metal strip, one end fixed on the carriage, and the other on a drum mounted on the stepper motor shaft. When the motor shaft (and the drum) turns, the strip is wound or unwound, with its other end moving the carriage with the block of heads progressively along the radius of the floppy disk.

The general principles of the design of the block of heads of classic floppy disks have undergone few changes. Their peculiarity lies in the presence of two tunnel erase heads located on the sides behind the recording / reproduction head. The role of these heads is to exclude the mutual influence of information recorded on adjacent tracks. To illustrate their work, you can use the following example: one person sprinkles sand on the path, and two following him sweep in all the sand that has fallen over the edges of the path.

The drives, which should replace the classic floppy disk, use even more complex heads, which must interact with two different media, sometimes even based on different principles work.

The diskette still has time to catch a cold at the funeral of its "killers"

So, the evolutionary development of the floppy disk ended due to the fact that technology had reached its limit. The period of revolutions has come, and, as in the political revolution, every revolutionary knows best what the "revolutionized" users need, and acts in accordance with it. The result is many formats that differ from each other, so that compatibility between all these devices is really only ensured by the fact that they can work with a 1.44 MB floppy disk. The "killers" of the floppy disk line up: elbowing and interfering with each other. Let's list only the "loudest" names of these would-be killers:

The LS-120 (Laser Servo) is the brainchild of Mitsubishi Electronics America and Winstation Systems, has a capacity of 120 MB and a maximum exchange rate of 4 MB / s (for SCSI interface). It can also be connected via the IDE interface. Like Sony's new 200MB HiFD drive, this drive uses different heads to handle 1.44MB floppy disk and high-capacity media. A magnetic head with a "laser sight" is used to read / write 120 MB media. That is, the positioning of the head is carried out in the same way as it happens in CD-ROM drives, but only along service tracks specially printed during the production of the carrier, which cannot be rewritten. On the surface of an LS-120 floppy disk, 2,490 tracks per inch can fit, versus 135 tracks per inch for a conventional 1.44 MB floppy disk. An analogue of the LS-120 in principle of operation and volume, SuperDisk Drive was developed by Imation (formerly a division of 3M).
The HiFD (High Capacity Floppy Disk) diskette and drive are jointly developed by Sony, TEAC, Alps and Fuji. At a spindle speed of 3600 rpm, a transfer rate of about 600 KB / s is provided (according to other sources, Sony HiFD performance reaches 3.6 MB / s - testing of our laboratory will show. - Approx. ed.). The cartridge capacity is 200 MB.
The UHC-31130 drive was invented by Mitsumi Electric and Swan Instruments.
The Ultra High Density (UHD) drive from Caleb Technology Corp. has a capacity of 144 MB. According to the developers, this drive with the IDE interface provides a sevenfold increase in performance compared to a traditional floppy drive. Caleb UHD has a declared data transfer speed of 970 KB / s, costs about $ 70 and in the future it is planned to increase the storage capacity to 540 MB.
Samsung's Pro-FD has a capacity of 123MB and a transfer rate of 625KB / s. Only self-aligning magnetic technology is used for positioning.

The sheer abundance of technology and formats gathered at the floppy's "funeral" suggests that rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated. The reason for the wide popularity (maybe forced, since there is no and cannot be a replacement for it in the current situation) of a floppy disk is precisely that it is possible not to check the presence of a certain type of drive in the company where the data is sent: you do not need to ask the secretary for a long time whether they have Zip or what magneto-optics they use. According to Disk / Trend, about 100 million 1.44MB floppy drives were sold last year.

The floppy drive not only did not die, but did not even weaken its positions - in terms of sales in pieces, it is 12 times stronger than all its competitors combined, including the Iomega Zip.

Therefore, my personal opinion is this: if anyone manages to bury a floppy disk, then not all of these "gravediggers" - they repel each other more, trying to take possession of the inheritance of the culprit of the event, than they are doing business. Moreover, they already have a competitor possessing the main qualities of a floppy disk, namely: complete and absolute compatibility and mass character. This refers to CD. As the prices for rewritable discs and rewritable discs and related drives come down, they will become more widespread. Their main advantage is the "handicap" of hundreds of millions of already installed drives and full compatibility with each other.

A standard floppy drive has a transfer rate of 62 KB / s and an average seek time of 84 ms. This, along with the ISA bus (to which 1.44 MB drives were connected until recently), is a serious limitation of their performance. Even very slow (by the standards of high-density drives) LS-120 class drives have a seek time of about 70 ms, and a data transfer rate of up to 565 KB / s.

ComputerPress 8 "1999

Evolution of the modern floppy disk

The first prototype floppy disk was developed by IBM in 1967. Thirty-two years is a very respectable age for computer technology, but, apparently, "my old lady is still alive." Let's try to trace her life in development.

So, in 1976 there was the first reduction in the size of the floppy disk from 8 to 5.25 inches. Its volume briefly became equal to 180 KB, which was clearly not enough, so floppy disks soon appeared, recording on which was made from both sides. They were called Double Density, although it was not the density that was increased, but the volume. It was these drives that were installed in the personal computer IBM PC, which was released in 1981.

As the volume of programs and data grew, it became clear that the volume of a 360 KB floppy disk was clearly insufficient. A new format was developed and, accordingly, new floppy disks and drives. For the manufacture of floppy disks with a volume of 1.2 Mbytes, improved magnetic materials were applied, which made it possible, while reducing the track width by half and increasing the recording density, nevertheless, a satisfactory signal level from the read head was obtained. By doubling the number of tracks exactly (from 48 to 96), it was possible to maintain backward compatibility, that is, a 1.2 MB floppy disk drive could read a 360 KB floppy disk. Interestingly, there were no cutouts or holes on the floppy disk with which the drive could determine its type; this information was recorded in the table of contents.

However, having reached a decent (and practically maximum for this technology) density, the 5.25-inch floppy disk still suffered from "childhood diseases", that is, insufficient mechanical strength and the degree of protection of the carrier from external influences. Through the hole for the head block, the surface was easily dirty, especially if the floppy disk was not stored in an envelope. The floppy disk was literally flexible: you could roll it up in a tube and ... then throw it into the nearest trash can. The inscriptions on the sticker could only be done with a soft felt-tip pen, since a ballpoint pen or pencil pushed through the envelope material. So it was time for the soft disk to take on a hard shell.

Anatomy of a floppy disk

The drives, which should replace the classic floppy disk, use even more complex heads, which must interact with two different media, sometimes even based on different principles of operation.

The diskette still has time to catch a cold at the funeral of its "killers"

The LS-120 (Laser Servo) is the brainchild of Mitsubishi Electronics America and Winstation Systems, has a capacity of 120 MB and a maximum transfer rate of 4 MB / s (for SCSI interface). It can also be connected via the IDE interface. Like Sony's new 200MB HiFD drive, this drive uses different heads to handle 1.44MB floppy disk and high-capacity media. A magnetic head with a "laser sight" is used to read / write 120 MB media. That is, the positioning of the head is carried out in the same way as it happens in CD-ROM drives, but only along the service tracks specially printed during the manufacture of the carrier, which cannot be rewritten. On the surface of an LS-120 floppy disk, 2,490 tracks per inch can fit, versus 135 tracks per inch for a conventional 1.44 MB floppy disk. An analogue of the LS-120 in principle of operation and volume, SuperDisk Drive was developed by Imation (formerly a division of 3M).
The HiFD (High Capacity Floppy Disk) diskette and drive are jointly developed by Sony, TEAC, Alps and Fuji. At a spindle speed of 3600 rpm, a transfer rate of about 600 KB / s is provided (according to other sources, Sony HiFD performance reaches 3.6 MB / s - testing of our laboratory will show. - Approx. ed.). The cartridge capacity is 200 MB.
The UHC-31130 drive was invented by Mitsumi Electric and Swan Instruments.
The Ultra High Density (UHD) drive from Caleb Technology Corp. has a capacity of 144 MB. According to the developers, this drive with the IDE interface provides a sevenfold increase in performance compared to a traditional floppy drive. Caleb UHD has a declared data transfer speed of 970 KB / s, costs about $ 70 and in the future it is planned to increase the storage capacity to 540 MB.
Samsung's Pro-FD has a capacity of 123MB and a transfer rate of 625KB / s. Only self-aligning magnetic technology is used for positioning.

The floppy drive not only did not die, but did not even weaken its positions - in terms of sales in pieces, it is 12 times stronger than all its competitors combined, including the Iomega Zip.

ComputerPress 8 "1999

A little more than forty years ago, the first computer floppy disks appeared, and thirty years ago the well-known 3.5-inch floppy disks came out. And they are still being produced! Nowadays, to transfer information, they use flash drives and external hard drives, and all previous developments are almost consigned to oblivion. IT. TUT.BY studied which removable media left a noticeable mark on computer history, and which could become the standard for many years to come.

Here we will consider only floppy disks and cartridges with magneto optical discs, which were inserted into the readers, and we will not disassemble ordinary disks and tape drives with magnetic tape.

Floppy Disc 8 "

Developer: IBM

Year of issue: 1971

Dimensions: 200x200x1 mm

Size: from 80 Kb at the beginning of the release to 1.2 Mb

Distribution: ubiquitous

In 1967, IBM under the leadership of Alan Shugart organized a group to develop new floppy disks. In 1971, the first eight-inch floppy disk was launched on the market: a round flat floppy disk in a plastic sleeve measuring 20x20 cm. Due to its flexibility, the novelty was named Floppy Disc - "floppy disk". At first, the capacity was only 80 kilobytes, but over time, the recording density was increased, and after five years the floppy disks could already contain more than a megabyte of information.

5.25 "Diskette (Mini Floppy Disk)

Developer: Shugart Associates

Year of issue: 1976

Dimensions: 133x133x1 mm

Size: from 110 Kb at the beginning of release to 1.2 Mb

Data exchange rate: up to 63 Kb / s

Distribution: ubiquitous

Two years after the release of the first eight-inch floppy disks, Alan Shugart founds his own company Shugart Associates, which three years later presented a new development - a five-inch floppy disk and a floppy drive. The company also noted the development of the SASI standard, which was later renamed to SCSI. Floppy disks were single-sided and double-sided, and many computer designers used their own formatting and writing algorithms, which made discs written in one drive unreadable in another. Schoolchildren of the period of the decline of the USSR and the first years of independence of the Union republics loaded computers from such floppy disks and played the simplest games. By the mid-eighties, the capacity of floppy disks had been increased tenfold. And Shugart Associates, by the way, later changed its name to the well-known Seagate.

Floppy disk 3,5 "(Micro Floppy Disk)

Developer: Sony

Year of issue: 1981

Dimensions: 93x89x3 mm

Size: from 720 Kb at the beginning of release up to 1.44 Mb (standard), up to 2.88 Mb (Extended Density)

Data exchange rate: up to 63 Kb / s

Distribution: ubiquitous

In 1981, Sony introduced a completely new type of floppy disk: the three-inch floppy disk. They weren't really flexible anymore, but the name remained. Now the magnetic circle was enclosed in plastic three millimeters thick, and the hole for the heads was covered with a spring shutter. These shutters, especially metal ones, loosened and bent during operation, and often came off inside the drive and remained there. Floppy disks became very popular, and different manufacturers computers equipped their machines with them. Sony has produced several models of digital cameras, which were recorded on floppy disks. By 1987, the standard capacity of floppy disks had grown to 1.44 MB, and a little later, thanks to an even higher recording density, it was possible to "squeeze out" up to 2.88 MB. Savvy students in hostels (including Belarusian ones) for money "overclocked" floppy drives up to 1.7-1.8 MB, while they could be read in ordinary drives. In spite of everything, three-inch floppy disks are still produced. Floppy disks are almost obsolete, but many programs still use the "Save" icon to look like a floppy disk.

Amstrad Disc 3 "(Compact Floppy Disc, CF2)

Developer: Hitachi, Maxell, Matsushita

Year of issue: 1982

Dimensions: 100x80x5 mm

Size: from 125 Kb at the beginning of the release to 720 Kb

Distribution: quite wide - mainly computers Amstrad CPC and Amstrad PCW, also Tatung Einstein, ZX Spectrum +3, Sega SF-7000, Gavilan SC

Amstrad, a renowned computer manufacturer, decided to go its own way and promoted a different 3-inch floppy disk from Hitachi. Even more surprising is the fact that the company was founded by the same Alan Shugart, who developed the first floppy disks. The magnetic disk itself inside the case took up less than half of the free space - the rest fell on the media protection mechanisms, which is why the cost of these disks was quite high. Despite the fact that these floppies were more expensive than standard 3.5-inch floppy disks with less memory, the company has been promoting them for quite a long time and quite a lot of success: more than 3 million pieces of Amstrad CPC computers were produced alone.

Bernoulli box

Developer: Iomega

Year of issue: 1983

Dimensions: Bernoulli Box: 27.5x21 cm, Bernoulli Box II: 14x13.6x0.9 cm

Size: from 5 MB at the beginning of the release to 230 MB

Data transfer rate: up to 1.95 Mb / s

Distribution: small

Iomega, later one of the main "whales" of the removable media market, developed the original Bernoulli Box in 1983. In it, the floppy disk rotates at a high speed (3000 rpm), as a result of which the surface of the disk directly under the read head bends and does not come into contact with it: read / write operations are performed through an air cushion. The equations for describing these air currents were proposed by the prominent Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli in the 18th century. Thanks to this development, the company gained fame, although the first products did not differ in either capacity or portability: the first cartridges were 27.5x21 cm in size and contained only 5 megabytes of information. The second generation decreased in size by about four times, and by 1994 the amount of memory had grown to 230 megabytes. But by that time, magneto-optical disks began to be actively promoted.

Magneto-optical drive (MO)

Developer: Sony

Year of issue: 1985

Dimensions: 133x133x6 mm, 93x89x6 mm, 72x68x5 mm for MiniDisc

Volume: 650 MB to 9.2 GB for 5-inch, 128 MB to 2.3 GB for 3.5-inch, 980 MB for mini-disks

Data exchange rate: up to 10 Mb / s

Distribution: significant

Magneto-optical discs look like standard and reduced-size CDs in a box. But at the same time they have an important difference: the recording is carried out in a magnetic way, that is, first, the laser heats the surface to a high temperature, and then the magnetization of the sections changes with an electromagnetic pulse. The system is highly reliable and resistant to mechanical damage and magnetic radiation, but provided a low recording speed and had a high power consumption. Both disks and drives were expensive, so magneto-optics did not receive very wide distribution like compact disks. Distribution was also hindered by the fact that for a very long time such discs allowed data to be recorded only once. But in some industries (for example, medicine), where the preservation of a large amount of information is required for a long time (and MO-disks "live" up to 50 years), the technology has gained acceptance. Sony still produces magneto-optical discs for both small and large size... MiniDisc music discs presented by the same Sony company in 1992 - special case magneto-optical disks. If at first they allowed recording only music, then modifications MD Data (1993) and Hi-MD (2004) provide recording of any data with a volume of 650 MB and 980 MB, respectively. "Minidisks" are also still in production.

Wheels SyQuest

Developer: SyQuest

Year of issue: around 1990

Dimensions: 5.25 "(approx. 13x13 cm) and 3.5" (approx. 9x9 cm)

Sizes: 5.25 ": 44, 88 and 200 MB; 3.5": 105 and 270 MB

Distribution: Medium (predominantly with MacIntosh computers)

Founded in 1982 by former Seagate employee Syed Iftikar, QyQuest entered the market with removable hard drives for the IBM XT. The firm later developed several different systems disks-cartridges. The most popular are the 5.25-inch SQ400 / SQ800 / SQ2000 cartridges (44, 88 and 200 MB), as well as the 3.5-inch SQ310 / SQ327 (105 and 270 MB). Their main disadvantage, apart from size, was that later systems were not fully compatible with earlier ones. Thus, drives for 200MB discs could only read 88MB discs, but could not write to them. The younger systems could neither read nor write to the older ones. In the year of release, 44MB drives cost about $ 100. A variety of incompatible standards and the absence of a normal trade name for a particular technology did not allow the discs to gain wide popularity. Magneto-optical disks provided more capacity, and Iomega's Zip disks soon followed.

Floptical

Developer: Insite Peripherals

Year of issue: 1991 (Insite Floptical), 1998 (Caleb UHD144, Sony HiFD)

Dimensions: 93x89x3 mm

Size: 21 MB (Insite Floptical), 144 MB (Caleb UHD144), 150-200 MB (Sony HiFD)

Data exchange rate: up to 125 Kb / s

Distribution: very small

Another magneto-optical technology, but of a different kind. The information is read by the magnetic heads, and the optical subsystem (infrared LEDs) ensures the accuracy of the head positioning. Thus, instead of the usual 135 tracks per inch, like floppy disks, they achieved a recording density of 1250 tracks per inch. Floptical drives were compatible with regular 3.5-inch floppy disks, and Floptical drives were initially marketed as the successor to floppy disks, but this did not happen. Seven years later, Caleb Technology developed a similar system, the Caleb UHD144, and Sony released Sony HiFD discs. Both of these systems were also compatible with regular floppy disks and both were also named as floppy disks, but they faced a loud failure in the market, because by that time the market for removable media of 100-250 MB was taken over by Iomega Zip disks.

Zip Drive (Iomega Zip)

Developer: Iomega

Year of issue: 1994

Dimensions: 98x98x6 mm

Size: from 100 MB at the beginning of the release to 750 MB

Data exchange rate: about 1 Mb / s

Spread: very wide

Compact discs were still expensive and did not allow erasing records (CD-RWs appeared only in 1997), magneto-optical discs were expensive and gluttonous, and the capacity of ordinary floppy disks was no longer enough. Iomega has refined the magnetic recording technology and introduced Zip disks: slightly larger than floppy disks, and with a capacity of as much as 100 megabytes. The head was brought to the disk not from the top, but from the side, and the data exchange rate was about 15 times faster than that of conventional floppy disks. Disk drives were produced in several formats - both external and internal, graceful in shape and blue, which could be placed flat on the table or vertically. The technology quickly gained popularity. Despite the clicks of death, which were a sign of disk failure, the zips sold successfully. In the year of release, floppy drives cost $ 100 and discs $ 20 each; later, 250 MB drives (round in shape, but of the same dimensions) and 750 MB drives (of the usual shape) appeared. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the popularity of Zip drives has declined, but Iomega still sells 100-megabyte drives for $ 9 apiece, and "seven hundred and fifty" - for $ 12.5. Many ancient technology enthusiasts still use epoch-making devices.

<Продолжение следует>

April 26, 2010, having lived his last, 3.5-inch 24-year life. If someone doesn't remember, floppy disks are black square memory devices that once could be called flat, with 1.44 MB. Just a third of an mp3 song or several documents previously archived could fit. The Ministry of Defense is buying them most actively in Russia: one of the experts interviewed told Life that "the archaic nature of floppy disks does not affect the trajectory of missiles." The American authorities, by the way, also buy floppies, the owner of the floppydisk.com store, Tom Persky, told us.

"I do not know of any company that currently produces floppy disks. It looks like the last floppy disk has already been issued. "

For most users, Sony's announcement of the discontinuation of floppy disks passed unnoticed. Prior to that, manufacturers gradually stopped releasing equipment with floppy drives, these drives in Windows were designated with the letter "A" (under "B" were 5-inch floppy drives, so the traditional "C" HDD). If you already knew this or are ready to clarify the previous proposal, then we are connected with the feeling of old age.

In 2015, the departments purchased floppy disks for at least 300 thousand rubles, from 2010 to May this year - for 2.3 million rubles. "At least" - because the search function for attached files (technical specifications) has not been working on the public procurement portal for three years, and representatives of the Lanit group refused to repair it. V new version the portal, which was launched this year, has no function at all.

Most of all floppy disks were needed by the Ministry of Defense - from January 2010 to May 2016, the War Ministry spent 563 thousand rubles on floppy disks, of which 80 thousand rubles were purchases of military enlistment offices.

Floppy disks are purchased for security reasons, to transfer information to the state secret protection service [structure of the Ministry of Defense], - a representative of one of the military enlistment offices told Life. - Mostly floppy disks are used to write secret maps.

What are these cards for and where they are used, the interlocutor did not explain, referring to the state secret. But it is known that floppy disks, for example, are used to control missiles. The US Audit Office reported in its report that the US military still uses 8-inch floppy disks to navigate missiles. The US nuclear forces are still dependent on "flops", they are planned to be removed from service in 2017.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Defense, "the actual archaism of the floppy disks does not affect the trajectory of the missiles." The department officially refused to comment on this topic.

For security reasons, floppy disks are also purchased by another law enforcement agency - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the employees of the investigation department told us about this.

You must understand that many [police] departments do not have free access to the Internet due to the observance of secrecy. So we carry our criminal cases to our bosses for verification, downloading them to floppy disks, and they write the corrected files back to them and give them to us, - says Alexey, adding that at least there is a reason to leave the office sometimes in a whole working day.

He noted that there are still many computers in the Ministry of Internal Affairs that are adapted to work with 3.5-inch floppy disks. And that the incompatibility of a number of government agencies with optical disks and flash drives is connected not only with secrecy - they are supposedly talking about saving.

It's good that in the 21st century you can buy a regular floppy disk. We are not given money for flash drives, they say that it is expensive. They cost 150 rubles each, but you can buy a floppy disk on the wholesale market for 25-30 rubles. Well, if the markets are not there, then you have to go to large stationery or computer stores. There, a box with ten Hong Kong floppy disks costs 400 rubles. The check can be handed over to the accounting department, and in six months the money will be returned. They are just enough for a modest lunch in a cafe opposite the investigation department, - said the policeman.

But the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not make it into the top ten buyers - because the police, according to Alexei, themselves stock up on floppy disks. True, they will probably be needed soon - the Ministry includes the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), which purchased these media. The Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation told us that diskettes are a necessary part of the operational activities of customs authorities:

"A 3.5-inch floppy disk, of course, looks wildly against the background of iPhones and mobile internet, but precisely because of the huge number of loopholes through which secret information, and old-fashioned floppy disks are needed, which allow you to store and transfer information in your pocket, and not through a sieve called the Internet "

Director of information security system integrator Softline Oleg Shaburov (previously worked for the antivirus company Symantec) noted that he does not see any advantages in floppy disks and cannot be called an archival tool either - because of the vulnerability to magnetic radiation and moisture, the average storage period for them does not exceed 3-5 years. At the same time, Shaburov recalled that the first of the most common viruses were transferred to floppy.

"Well, unless the police and customs officers have a calculation that the attackers will not have a floppy drive - or that the virus will not fit on a floppy disk"

In addition to law enforcement agencies, state universities, hospitals and clinics are also among the largest buyers of floppy disks. From January 2010 to May of this year, they spent 247 thousand rubles and 243 thousand rubles, respectively. Basically, universities and hospitals are forced to use floppy disks due to outdated technology. In March of this year, there was even a hype due to the fact that Russian academy Sci. asked young scientists to apply for grants on diskettes, but the requirement was declared optional. The average age of RAS academicians is over 70 years.

The five leaders in the purchase of floppy disks also included the Pension Fund of Russia and city administrations. Over the past six years, they have spent 235 thousand rubles and 90 thousand rubles on floppy disks, respectively. According to Alexander Burtsev, director of the Internet Partner company, state institutions have become hostages of their infrastructure, and To the Pension Fund The multimillion-dollar works on modernization of equipment and software, regularly paid by him, do not help in any way.

There are many floppy disk suppliers in Russia. Among them is the Samara firm "Spetsstroisnab" by Elena Cheprasova, which is engaged in the supply of computer and printing consumables.

These are regional divisions of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, customs, and courts. More often - these are contracts of thousands for 30 rubles, since the state services, even the security forces, do not have free money: the crisis, - said the representative of Spetsstroysnab.

The company purchases floppy disks from larger wholesalers, which are gradually clearing out Asian warehouses. Tom Persky (sells over 200 thousand floppy disks a year) says that he does not often have orders from Russia, and he sells a little to the American departments - mostly floppy disks go to companies whose equipment works only "on flops." These are embroidery, stamping machines and other special machines.

Floppy disks are running out - their reserves will last for another five years. Tom Persky now makes more money not on floppy, but on a service related to them - they order from him fast transfer data from large batches of floppy disks to modern media.

The dimensions of the floppy disk are 3.5 centimeters. The evolution of removable media: from floppy disks to magneto-optics. Floppy disk drives

Floppy history

Floppy disk device

Floppy disk formats

The advantages of a floppy disk

Disadvantages of floppies

Disconnect the floppy disk

Floppy disk emulators

The disappearance of floppy disks

Cinquefoil Floppy Disc

Finally

Anatomy of a floppy disk

The diskette still has time to catch a cold at the funeral of its "killers"

Anatomy of a floppy disk

The diskette still has time to catch a cold at the funeral of its "killers"

The last

You need to know