Floppy Disks

The floppy disc used to be the main method for externally transferring or adding data before the CD/ DVD ROM came along. Floppy discs are outdated magnetic storage mediums that notify computer hardware to write a data file once inserted.

The floppy disk is a soft magnetic disk and is similar to the hard drive: it operates on the principles of magnetic recording; it uses magnetic heads for data storage and retrieval from the rotating magnetic media. However, the floppy offers low quality media in comparison.

Although floppy discs are outdated and rarely used these days, they do still have their advantages. They are portable, universally available and inexpensive. They can also be accessed randomly as well as transferred from one computer to another. It is also possible to write protect a floppy in case of accidental formatting. However, floppy disc are not durable due to dust and dirt in which the magnetic field can easily be destroyed. Storage capacity is very limited (1.44 MB), and are a lot slower to access.

Standard Guide for Formatting

Insert a floppy disk into the floppy disk drive. Double-click the My Computer icon.
Right-click the icon for the floppy disk drive, usually labelled 3 1/2 Floppy (A :).

Choose Format from the menu that appears. Click Start.