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A floppy disk drive is a computer hardware device that reads data from removable floppy disks. Earlier floppy disks were 8 inches in diameter but the most widely used standard sizes were 5.25 inches and 3.5 inches, which had greater storage capacity. Modern computers no longer include floppy disk drives due to limited storage capacity of floppy disks and improved alternatives like CDs, DVDs, and flash drives. A floppy disk drive contains components like read/write heads to access data, a motor to spin the disk, and a circuit board to transfer data between the computer and disk. While floppy drives were once standard, they are now obsolete and external USB floppy drives

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Mikaela Ramos
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184 views

Computer

A floppy disk drive is a computer hardware device that reads data from removable floppy disks. Earlier floppy disks were 8 inches in diameter but the most widely used standard sizes were 5.25 inches and 3.5 inches, which had greater storage capacity. Modern computers no longer include floppy disk drives due to limited storage capacity of floppy disks and improved alternatives like CDs, DVDs, and flash drives. A floppy disk drive contains components like read/write heads to access data, a motor to spin the disk, and a circuit board to transfer data between the computer and disk. While floppy drives were once standard, they are now obsolete and external USB floppy drives

Uploaded by

Mikaela Ramos
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Carlos Luigi R.

Ramos IV- Calcium

Assignment in Computer
A Floppy Disk Drive, or FDD for short, is a computer disk drive that enables a user to easily save data to removable diskettes. Although 8" disk drives made available in 1971 were the first real disk drives, the first widely used an floppy disk drives were the 5 1/4" floppy disk drives, which were later replaced with 3 1/2" floppy disk drives. However, today because of the limited capacity and reliability of floppy diskettes many computers no longer come equipped with floppy disk drives and are being replaced with CD-R and other writable disc drives and flash drives. The Floppy Drive is Also Known As: floppy disk drive, disk drive, diskette drive, 3.5" drive, 5.25" drive A floppy disk drive is a hardware device that reads one of the first types of portable data storage media -- floppy diskettes, also known as floppy disks. Over the years, like many other aspects of personal computing, these disks got smaller and smaller, but increased their capacity. As they changed, the floppy disk drive also changed. But as newer storage technologies are developed and the floppy disk becomes increasingly outdated, the drives that read them are becoming increasingly rare as well. The first floppy disk drives accommodated disks that were eight inches (20.32 cm) diagonally. For years, when the personal computer first started to be affordable for the majority of those in industrialized nations, the standard was the 5.25-inch (13.34 cm) disk. These not only were somewhat smaller, but could hold up to 360 kilobytes of information, more than three times what the eight-inch disk could hold. Then, the 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) diskreplaced the 5.25inch (13.34 cm) disk in the early 1990s, capable of holding 1.44 megabytes of information. For a while there were two floppy disk drive types often included with computers. The floppy disk drive has many parts that are needed in order for it to work properly. Among the most important of these are the read and write heads. Most floppy drives have two of these heads. These are used to get information

from the disk and transfer information to thedisk. Some floppy disks have tabs that can be moved to prevent the writing of information on a disk, even if an attempt is made. A motor spins the disk and does so at a rate of at least 360 revolutions per second. The other major parts of a floppy disk drive include the stepper motor and circuit board. The stepper motor is responsible for moving the read/write heads where they need to be. The circuit board is responsible for taking the information and transferring it between the computer and floppy disk drive. The circuit board is also responsible for controlling the motors of the floppy disk drive. While the floppy disk drive used to be a standard feature available on all computers, technology has advanced to the point where that is no longer the case. Rather, those who want a floppy disk drive will likely need to buy it separate from the computer or choose it as an add-on option for a new computer. They can still be bought as internal drives or external drives. The external floppy disk drive, which normally connects to the computer through a USB port, is probably the most popular choice.

Important Floppy Drive Facts: While still a component of some existing computers, floppy drives are essentially obsolete, replaced by inexpensive flash drives and other portable media drives. A floppy drive is no longer standard equipment in new computer systems. Floppy drives that install inside of a computercase are becoming less and less available. Typically, the best option when adding a floppy drive will be to purchase an external one, probably USB based.

Above is an example of each of the different floppy drives. As can be seen the size of the floppy drives and their disks have greatly decreased over time.

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