A floppy disk, or as it is also called, a diskette, is one of the first storage devices that can be employed to migrate data from one computer to another. A diskette is a round plastic disk with a ferromagnetic coating. The disk is enclosed in a plastic casing, which has a special hole in it. Through this opening, the disk drive head can write data on flexible media and read it.
In the 80s and 90s, a floppy was the only way to transfer information from one device to another. That era has long passed due to the development of other storage methods and the popularization of computer networks.
That’s why a floppy is unlikely to ever return, like vinyl, for example, since the volume that a diskette can keep is insignificant and the data transfer rate is low.
Although floppy disks have not been mass-produced for a long time, they are manufactured by small Chinese companies, so there is still demand for them.
So what is this type of disk used for now?
Let’s look at several options for utilizing diskettes.
Old computers
Owners of old computers still employ floppy disks. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to use such PCs.
Moreover, there were computers that did not come with a hard drive, so their operating systems were stored on a diskette. Such PCs had two disk drives: one for the OS and the other for the transfer of files or the launch of programs.
Certainly, in those years, the size of programs amounted to kilobytes, so the floppy disk capacity was sufficient.
Industry
Industry is modernizing very slowly. Let’s imagine some huge metallurgical plant that was computerized in the last century. Everything works like clockwork; why change anything?
The computers that such enterprises bring to bear can still use a diskette drive to load the necessary software. In principle, a floppy can still be utilized in any area where old computers are currently used and the upgrade of both their hardware and software costs significant money.
Aircraft
For example, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 747-200 can use floppy disks to load flight information. This is if the aircraft equipment has not been modernized. And such planes still exist in small airlines and in third-world countries.
Also, the use of diskettes is noticed in old business jets, since they are rarely upgraded at all.
Japan and the USA
Only this year, Japan officially refuses floppy disks! And until 2024, floppy disks were actively used in Japanese “government services,” for example, to transfer data to the tax office.
It seems that such an advanced country and floppy disks don’t mix, but the Japanese are famous for their conservatism.
In the USA, floppy disks are still used, for example, in the train control system in San Francisco. The system was created back in the years when hard drives might not have been present in computers at all, and upgrading all this was very expensive.
Also, diskettes can be employed in the work of small business computers that are unable to purchase modern equipment.
What awaits floppy disks next?
It’s safe to say that diskettes are steadily coming to a complete decline, as it happened with audio cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes.
Although a floppy disk is a very cheap storage device, it has a number of big disadvantages, which are as follows:
– small amount of stored information;
– low speed of reading/writing and access to files;
– susceptibility to demagnetization.
Of course, for some time diskettes will be produced in nameless Chinese factories, but later this format will finally become a thing of the past. Meanwhile, in the USA, there are still websites that buy used floppy disks for restoration and subsequent sale.
