When Were Floppy Disks Introduced

Time was when an entire computer operating system could fit in a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk with a capacity of 1.2 megabyte

. An entire PC game could be contained in a single floppy of the same capacity, and such populated more than half of the racks of avid home users in the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's. For nearly three decades, the floppy disk ruled the computer world. Business and home users entrusted their most important information into these delicate devices which demanded more handling care on the part of the user than the security of data that was virtually unaddressed by the manufacturers.

During the days of the 8- and 5 1/4-inch floppy disk in the 1970's, and the mid-1980's, extensive precautions in print accompanied the sale of a single unit, warning the user from: exposing the disk to dust, temperature extremes, and magnetic field; touching the uncovered part of the magnetic field; severely crumpling or bending; and scribbling on it with any writing pen other than a felt-tipped one. Because of the hectic lifestyle led by many patrons of this information technology advancement, such precautions were frequently and inadvertently neglected to result in heartbreaking data loss along with fatal damage to the diskette. In other words, the promise of convenient data storage and transport entailed its own set of handling issues.

It is a conundrum why floppy disk manufacturers never pursued further in dealing with the problem of the obvious vulnerability of the unit. The 5 1/2-inch enclosed a fragile magnetic film in disk form within a slim, soft-matted, plastic casing. At the center of the entire structure was a hole that met an interior spindle of the drive once inserted. Beside this hole were elongated apertures that exposed a part of the sensitive magnetic film to allow read- and write-heads inside the drive to access the data stored in the media. These very apertures that remained unclosed all throughout the life of the floppy disk, provided a main vulnerability for any of the mentioned destroying factors to set in. Throughout the existence of the 5 1/4-inch in the 1970's and the 1980's, its only external protection was a flimsy paper jacket that covered up to seventy-five percent of the structure, just enough to cover the spindle hole.

Yet probably the best response to the problem of added security of the floppy disk came with the development of the 3 1/2-inch. It sported a more compact and thicker plastic case and a sliding metal cover, which was pushed aside by the drive heads when in use and snapped shut when unused. This new structural scheme seemed to provide the user with the illusion of reinforced security for the flimsy film that held his data. Though it thrives to this day, and its container plan adopted by larger-capacity floppy models, data loss persist and the threats to the usability of the 3 1/2-inch-and to others, like the Zip disk, the LS-120 and the -1240, the HiFD-remain the same.

Computer giant IBM successfully introduce the first floppy disk into the mass market in the form of the IBM 23FD in 1971. It measured a diameter of 8 inches and held a capacity of 79.7 kilobytes. Unlike the models that followed it, was primarily a read-only medium. In the years that followed, IBM and companies like Memorex, Shugart and Associates, and Burroughs Corporation improved on this innovation to add the write capability on the 8-inch floppy. In 1976, Shugart Associates came up with the 5 1/4-inch and, in a two-year time, dominated the market until phased out by the 3 1/2-inch in 1987. To date, the 3 1/2-inch remains the structural standard even for large-format floppies.

by: Brian Jones

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