FLOPPY DEFINITIONS

3.5-Inch diskette

In the past one of the most commonly used methods to backup and store data. The 3.5-Inch floppy diskettes have a dimensions of 8.9cm in width by 9.3cm in height and are referred to as floppies because of the circular magnetic floppy within the hard shell. 3.5-inch floppy diskettes come in sizes of 720kb low-density and the 1.44MB or high density capacity.  



5.25-Inch diskette

Older diskette popular 1970's that is similar in concept to the 3.5-inch floppy diskette with less capacity and a larger dimension of 13.3cm by 13.3cm in size. Unlike the 3.5-inch diskettes the 5.25-inch diskettes did not have a hard shell and were flimsy. The 5.25-inch diskettes were available in a capacity of 360kb low-density and 1.2MB high-density size by 1994 the 5.25-inch disk was extinct and were replaced by the popularity of the 3.5-inch disks.  



A:

Physical drive located on PC or IBM compatible computers. The A: drive is a drive letter that today is almost always used for the 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, however on older computers may be the 5.25-inch drive.  

The A: drive is almost always the first bootable drive on IBM compatible computers that helps enable users to use bootable floppy diskettes to fix and repair their computer.

B:

Driver letter description on PC computers. Today most computers do not include or have a B: drive, if present the B: drive is generally the 5.25-inch disk drive however can also be the 3.5-inch drive.  

Bad sector

Refers to a flaw with the hard disk drive disk or a manufacturer defect. When bad sectors are encountered it is generally a defective disk or hard disk drive and it will need to be replaced. Below is an example of what a sector is.  

Bootable disk

Also known as a startup disk or boot disk a bootable disk is a floppy diskette or other media that contains special files that enables it to boot from the disk and not the hard disk drive. Commonly this diskette is used to trouble shoot the computer or allow the user to copy files when a computer is down.

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Disk

Hard or floppy round flat magnetic data storage platter that is capable of having information saved to it. It is more appropriate to refer to a floppy disk as a floppy diskette.

Disk copy

Process of putting information from one disk to another.  

Disk crash

Physical failure of a diskette or hard drive that is generally not recoverable

Disk drive

Physical drive capable of holding information and/or retrieving information. A good example of a disk drive is the computer floppy disk drive.  

Disk driver

Device driver that allows a specific disk drive to communicate with the remainder of the computer. A good example of this type of driver is a floppy disk driver.  

Disk envelope

Sometimes referred to as a disk jacket, the disk envelope is a paper or plastic sheath in which a 5.25-inch disk and its jacket is stored.  

Disk pack

Term used to describe a set of diskettes that are bundled as a package. For example when purchasing floppy diskettes you may be able to purchase a disk pack of 50 - 100 diskettes.  

Diskette

Physical disk that can be removed and placed into a floppy disk drive. This allows for information to be installed into a computer, saved and/or transferred to other computers easily

   
Diskette drive

Term generally used to describe a floppy disk drive. Commonly the A: or B: drive on IBM compatible computers this drive allows users to read and write information to floppy disk drives.  

DMF

Special format of 3.5" floppy disks used by Microsoft to store 1.68MB of data on a standard 1.44MB floppy disk.  

Double Density Disk

Floppy diskette capable of holding twice the amount of information then a single-density disk.  

Dual disk drive

Sometimes referred to as a dual diskette drive a dual disk drive is a seperate component that contained two diskette drives and is attached to a computer.  This type of attachment was commonly used on older computers.  Today these devices are no longer or available for new computers.

FDC

Acronym for floppy disk controller. The FDC is a controller used to interface the floppy disk drive with the computer.  

FDD

A Floppy Disk Drive or FDD for short is a computer disk drive that enables a user to easily save data to removable diskettes.   

Ferric oxide

Sometimes known as Magnetic oxide or Fe203, Ferric oxide is a substance commonly used to make magnetic data storage media used in 3.5" and 5.25" floppy diskettes

Floppy disk

Created originally in the 1960's and 1970's to help prevent from buying hard drives which at the time were extremely expansive and not thought of as being used in a standard computer.

8" Disk - The first disk was introduced in 1971. The disk was 8" in diameter with a magnetic coating, enclosed in a cardboard case with the capacity of one megabyte. Conversely to hard disks, the heads actually touch the disk, like in a cassette or video player which actually wears the media.
5.25" Disk - Created in 1976 which first started with disks only with 160KB.

5.25" Single Side - 160KB
5.25" Double Side - 360KB
5.25" Double Side High Density - 1.2MB
3.5" Disk - Created by IBM in 1987, which even today are still commonly used. Most 3 1/2" newer disks have a capacity of up to 1.44MB.

3.5" Double Density - 720KB
3.5" High Density - 1.44MB
3.5" Extended Density (IBM ONLY) - 2.88MB

Floptical

Similar to a standard floppy disk drive the floptical was a type of diskette that utilized a unique optical tracks to help allow the read / write head align properly. The floptical drive was capable of holding up to 21MB of data on a single diskette.  

Format

The overall layout of a document.
DOS command that prepares a blank diskette or hard disk by first formatting the disk to hold data.

Head slot

The opening on the 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch floppy disk that allows the floppy disk drive to read data from the floppy. On the 3.5" floppy disk the head slot is found behind the read / write access door.  

High-density diskette

A 3.5" floppy diskette capable of holding up to 1.44 megabytes of data or a 5.25" diskette capable of holding up to 1.2 megabytes of data.  
A high-density diskette can be distinguished from others either by the labeling of a 1.44 or 1.2 megabytes label or the initials of HD on the diskette. Today most computer stores only carry high-density diskettes.

IDC

Short for Insulation Displacement Contact or Insulation Displacement Connector, IDC is a type of connector found at the end of many cables. For example an IDE disk drive or floppy disk drive cables have an IDC's at the ends of the ribbon cable. In the below illustration you can see three  Insulated Displacement Connectors on the floppy cable.



[ Last edited by ?巈R鯻C?L换

Magnetic media

Any type of storage medium that utilizes magnetic patterns to represent information. A good example of a magnetic media is a floppy diskette.  

Media

Term used to describe a type of computer storage. For example a floppy diskette is a type of media used to store data.  

MFM encoding

Short for Modified Frequency Modification encoding, MFM encoding is a method of how a disk controller records information onto a floppy disk and/or hard disk drive platter that replaced FM.  

MO diskette

Short for Magneto-optical diskette, MO diskettes is similar to a standard floppy diskette. However, is slightly larger. MO diskettes are used in magneto-optical drives, have a capacity ranging from 100MB to several gigabytes,  and are capable of being read from and written to several times.  

Off-line storage

Term used to describe a type of storage that cannot be accessed by the computer.  A good example of off-line storage is a floppy disk. Off-line storage allows a user to store information that will not be affected by computer viruses or hardware failure.  

Preformatted

Computer diskette, tape, hard disk drive, or other medium that has already been formatted and does not require the user to format the disk before using it.  

Removable disk

A removable media that enables the ability to easily move data between computers. One of the most common types of removable disks are 3.5-inch diskettes.

Secondary storage device

A storage medium that holds information until it is deleted or overwritten. Examples of secondary storage devices are a floppy disk drive or a hard disk drive.  

Single-density diskette

Also known as single-sided diskette, a single-density diskette is the first type of computer diskette produced that was capable of supporting only "one-sided" recording. This type of diskette is not capable of holding as much information as a double-density diskette can.  

Source data disk

Term could also be "source data disc" or "source data drive", the source data disk is a diskette, disc, or drive from which data will be copied to an alternate diskette or disc.  

Storage devices

A storage device is a hardware device designed to store information. There are two types of storage devices used in computers; a 'primary storage' device and a 'secondary storage' device.  

Tab

An indention at the beginning of a line to signify a new paragraph in a document. Usually about five spaces, tabs are primarily used to help create equal spacing between multiple lines or to start a new paragraph.
In a software program and on the Internet a tab allows for the user to access different parts of a menu, display, or page.
Small plastic piece used to enable/disable write-protection on floppy diskette drives.  
A keyboard key that inserts a tab character or advances the cursor to other tab settings on a line. This key can also move between selectable items in a dialog box.

TPI

Short for Tracks Per Inch, TPI is the number of tracks capable of fitting on a disk.

Track

When referring to an audio CD a track is a section of a CD that contains a single full song. Tracks are used on a CD to help enable a user to easily skip songs or locate a song on a CD.
A track is also a data storage ring on a computer floppy diskette or hard disk drive that is capable of containing information. As shown in the below example a track goes all around the platter and is used to help locate and retrieve information from a disk or diskette.  



Write protect

Ability of hardware device or software program that prevents or allows data to be written to it.  
For example to protect a file in software users utilizing Microsoft MS-DOS could write protect a file utilizing the attrib command, users using a Linux variant or UNIX variant could write protect a file utilizing the chmod command.

To protect a file with a hardware device such as a floppy diskette, users using a 5.25-inch floppy diskette can write protect a diskette by covering a notch with tape at the upper corner of the diskette. Users using a 3.5-inch diskette and enable or disable write protection by moving a small tab to block or unblock the hole located in the corner of the floppy diskette.

By using write protection users have the ability to help ensure data is not accidentally overwritten or erased.

[ Last edited by ?巈R鯻C?L换

Fast-N-Furious

huh.. baper banyak tangan daa ko dpt ari nieh..