Just out of curiosity

Discussion in 'A+' started by flex22, Oct 3, 2004.

  1. flex22

    flex22 Gigabyte Poster

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    Why does a 5.25 inch floppy disk have less capacity than a 3.5 inch floppy disk.
     
  2. punkboy101
    Honorary Member

    punkboy101 Back from the wilderness

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    Hi Flex, the 5.25 Inch floppy is an older format, therefore bigger, and with less capacity. I've never used one, or seen an actuall drive, but I believe the disk is bigger (obviously lol), and the one's I have seen have a rather "floppy" casing, as opposed to 3.5"'s which have a harder plastic cover, and also a metal cover to protect the actual disk.


    If I'm not mistaken, and I believe I might be, before the 5.25" floppy, they were 8".

    HTH :D

    Andy
     
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  3. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Ahh, I remember the 5.25" floppy. Carefully removing it from its paper envelope and pushing it into the drive, then pressing the tiny lever down. Then to remove it, lifting the lever and out it pops (the disk that is). Haven't got any now but is I ever need any I know where I can get a drive and disks.


    Back in the good old days when floppy disks where man sized and needed a suitcase to carry them around. :ohmy

    And then technology really rocked when the 3.5" Double Density disk came.
     
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  4. flex22

    flex22 Gigabyte Poster

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    Aha:!: so bigger isn't necessarily better.Great, I wonder what exactly is the difference between them.
    Aren't they both formatted in FAT32?

    So what actual technological change allows the smaller disk to hold more data?
     
  5. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Blimey flex, 5.25" disks were before FAT 32, could even be before FAT 16 but not sure there.


    I think what made the disks smaller and the capacity bigger was the better medium that the data was stored on. I think the same goes with HDD, they get bigger in the amount od data they can store, but physically they stay the same size. But then again, someone will come aslong and say that's a load of rubbish AJ it goes like this ..........................:oops:
     
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  6. flex22

    flex22 Gigabyte Poster

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    Ok, well I'll stay up a bit later tonight then :p

    Thanks:!:
     
  7. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Tempted ...:hhhmmm
     
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  8. Fergal1982

    Fergal1982 Petabyte Poster

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    flex, its exactly the same as hard drives getting bigger capacity-wise without changing physical size. the technology has become better at packing more into a smaller space! for instance, current Holographic Data Storage (HDS) prototypes are able to pack 100GB per square inch, and thats only the working models!!!!!

    Its the same for any technology: mobile phones; PDA's; processors; etc, etc!

    EDIT: just backing up what AJ said!
     
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  9. nugget
    Honorary Member

    nugget Junior toady

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    Just wanted to add that AJ has it right. As tecnology advanced the quality and engineering accuracy also improved and we could pack more in the same space. This also leads generally to a progressive reduction in size for most things.

    BTW before 8 inch floppys came the things were even bigger and held even less (about 320K if I remember rightly).

    I remember Windows 3.1 came on about 8 5.25" floppys.
     
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  10. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    ahh those 8" floppies were fun, didnt make as good frisbies as CDs though

    were going back to where floppies actually got thier name from flex :)
    when floppy disks were floppy, and hard disks were hard
    I remember folding a 5"1/2 floppy and seeing how many times it could get folded whilst still functioning after being unfolded :)
    think i managed twice, LOL

    floppies are becoming rather extinct, although not at the speed some predicted, I havnt included a floppy in any of my systems for over 3 years, and not in a system i have built for others in over 18 months, its just as cost effective to bundle a 16MB USB key for them :)
     
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  11. flex22

    flex22 Gigabyte Poster

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    I do remember when floppy disks were floppy.We used to use them in school.
     

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