"Computer Artifacts" - D2CA's 3½" Floppy Disk Collections

3½" Floppy Disks As 8" floppy disks made Hollerith punch cards obsolete in the early 1970's, 3½" floppy disks began the road to obsolescence for 8" and 5¼" floppies in the early 1980's. 8" and 5¼" floppy disks exposed their magnetic surface through slots and round holes in their outer casing, necessitating the need to store them in paper sleeves to protect the magnetic surface. 5¼" double-density and high-density floppy disks also had different densities of magnetic particles on their disk surfaces to allow for higher capacities. 3½" floppy disks, first invented in 1982, did not have the "floppy" outer casing 8" and 5¼" floppies have, but instead feature a more durable, solid plastic shell, metal central hub, and a retractable, spring-loaded metal cover that completely covers the surface of the magnetic disk. 3½" floppy disks were first commonly used in Apple Macintosh computers and later in IBM/compatible systems. Apple format capacities for 3½" floppy disks are 400K, 800K, and 1.44MB. IBM/compatible format capacities for 3½" floppy disks are 720K, 1.44MB, and 2.88MB. Later "floptical" and other non-standard 3½" floppy drives pushed capacities as high as 120MB. While 5¼" double-density and high-density disks had different magnetic particle densities, the magnetic particle density for 3½" floppy disks remained the same. The particle density for a 400K Macintosh floppy disk is the same as a "Superdisk" LS-120 120MB disk. By the late 1980's, the format the industry standardized on was the high-density 1.44MB. In 2004, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates declared the floppy disk was "dead." But the floppy disk is hard to "kill." Even with high-capacity USB flash drives capable of holding gigabytes of data and the lack of 3½" floppy drives in Macintosh computers since 1998 and PCs since 2004, the BIOS in these computers continues to support 3½" floppy disks and solutions such as external USB 3½" floppy drives continue to allow people to use 3½" floppy disks. Featured below are my collections of 3½" floppy disk items.

3½" Floppy Disk Boxes

BASF DS-DD Sealed Box 10-Count

Maxell DS-DD Sealed Box 10-Count

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Updated last on 01/01/2009.
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