Floppy Disks

Floppy Disks are removable memories that appeared in 1971, firstly made by IBM. They consist of a magnetic disk packaged in a flat plastic case.

The disks firstly had a diameter of 8 inches (20.32 cm) and could store up to a few hundreds kB of data. The size was later reduced to 5.25" (13.335 cm) and 3.5" (8.89 cm). Most floppy disks of the latter size are designed to store 1.44 MB of data, though there were also more uncommon formats, notably the double density version storing 2.88 MB.

Floppy disks were ubiquitous during the 1980s and 1990s, but the appearance of optical disks and flash drives that are more reliable and able to store much more data made them obsolete and progressively disappear during the 2000s.

IBM Diskette 1 8 Inches IBM Floppy 5.25 Inches IBM Floppy 3.5 Inches IBM Floppy Handling Recommendations
IBM Floppies IBM Floppy Boxes
  • An 8" IBM Floppy Disk from the 1970s with its original sleeve and a Sealed Box of 10 of them (Diskette 1, Part Number 2305830).
  • A 5.25" IBM Floppy Disk probably from the 1980s with its original sleeve and a Sealed Box of 10 of them (Part Number 6023450).
  • A 3.5" IBM Floppy Disk probably from the 1990s and a Sealed Box of 10 of them (Part Number 34L2611). The most common 1.44 MB floppy disk type.
  • Back of the sleeves, showing recommendations regarding the handling of Floppy Disks.
  • The three Floppies together.
  • The three Boxes together.