6. Floppy Disk

Floppy disks are one of the oldest types of portable storage devices still in use, having been around since the 1980s. However, they are gradually becoming obsolete and some manufacturers are now starting to build their PCs without floppy disk drives.

A floppy disk can store up to 1.44 Mb of data which is equivalent to around 300 pages of A4 text. They used to be the ideal storage device for transferring small files from home to work/school or from one office computer to another. But nowdays, many files contain graphics or WordArt and are larger than the size of the floppy disk.

Floppy disks are a magnetic storage device.

All disks must be formatted before data can be written to the disk. Formatting divides the disk up into sections or sectors onto which data files are stored. In the past, the user would have to format their own disks, but now they are sold pre-formatted.

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Click on this link: Floppy Disks

Advantages

Portable - small and lightweight
Inexpensive
Useful for transferring small files between home and school
Security tab to stop data from being written over
Can be used many times

Disadvantages

Not very strong - easy to damage
Data can be erased if the disk comes into contact with a magnetic field
Quite slow to access and retrieve data when compared to a hard disk
Can transport viruses from one machine to another
Small storage capacity
Many new computers don't have floppy disk drives