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The Floppy Disk (2011)

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Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#31

Post by js2 »

> The big storage breakthrough came in 1977 when Apple introduced the Apple II, its first mass-produced computer. It came with two 5-¼ inch floppy drives.

Not quite. The Disk II Interface Card wasn't available till 1978. It supported two drives. But the card and drives were options. A couple ads re-affirming my memory:

https://brian.carnell.com/articles/2021/apple-ii-ad-1978/

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/92/81/d99281c7517692b48093...

The second ad has this copy:

> Apple II'™ is a completely self-contained computer system with BASIC in ROM, color graphics, ASCII key board, light-weight, efficient switching power supply and molded case. It is supplied with BASIC in ROM, up to 48K bytes of RAM, and with cassette tape, video and game I/O interfaces built-in. Also included are two game paddles and a demonstration cassette.

I owned an Apple II fully loaded and upgraded to a II+. (I actually still have most of it in a closet and someday need to get it functional again.)

The Disk II Interface Card was another one of Woz's legendary designs:

https://www.bigmessowires.com/2021/11/12/the-amazing-disk-ii...

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#33

Post by lisper »

js2 wrote: post #31

> The big storage breakthrough came in 1977 when Apple introduced the Apple II, its first mass-produced computer. It came with two 5-¼ inch floppy drives. Not quite. The Disk II Interface Card wasn't available till 1978. It supported two drives. But the card and drives were options. A couple ads re-affirming my memory: https://brian.carnell.com/articles/2021/apple-ii-ad-1978/ https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/92/81/d…

Can confirm. I also owned an Apple II+ in the 1970s and the disk drives were definitely an optional add-on.

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#34

Post by sublinear »

ttul wrote: post #29

Anecdote: My friend in high school found that he could drill a hole in a 720KB floppy and transform it into a 1.44MB floppy, saving a few bucks. In 1993, this was practically magic.

Demagnetizing a 1.44MB disk before formatting it and taping over that same hole was the inverse magic trick by the end of the 90s when it got harder to find the 720KB floppies.

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#35

Post by Someone »

true_religion wrote: post #15
NikolaNovak wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe floppy 5.25" diskettes with 1.2mb predated the harder but eventually more common 3.5" 1.44mb ones. 5.25 were my first diskettes on a 286 at with 16mhz TURBO whee :-)

Funny enough the 5.25s were actually floppy. The 3.5s weren’t and I’m not sure why we didn’t call them mini hard disks.

> Funny enough the 5.25s were actually floppy.

Everything is relative. Relative to 8 inch floppies, 5.25 inch ones aren’t very floppy. 8 inch ones visually bend under their own weight.

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#38

Post by roygbiv2 »

velcrovan wrote: post #23

Minidiscs should have won for both audio and data. They’re perfect for long-term archival storage and they’re just plain cool. If only Sony wasn’t so shortsighted.

I wanted a data drive for my mini disks so bad back in the 90s. It just never happened and writeable CDs happened instead.

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#39

Post by snvzz »

SillyUsername wrote: post #9

Article has inaccuracies. The HD floppy is to formatted 1.44MB, not 1.2MB, and unformatted capacity was 2.0MB. People did not program word processors themselves as they didn't exist, typewriters did. Later, pre disk, magazines type-ins and software on (magnetic) tapes were common means of software distribution. How to tell me your under 30 without telling me you're under 30 :D

>The HD floppy is to formatted 1.44MB, not 1.2MB, and unformatted capacity was 2.0MB.

The unformatted capacity isn't measured in MB. A floppy is analog media.

The controller deals with an analog signal from/to the floppy drive, which in turn is translated with the floppy's surface itself through the drive's header.

There's a variety of physical formats by which to coerce data into tracks.

Re: The Floppy Disk (2011)

#40

Post by RetroTechie »

true_religion wrote: post #15
NikolaNovak wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe floppy 5.25" diskettes with 1.2mb predated the harder but eventually more common 3.5" 1.44mb ones. 5.25 were my first diskettes on a 286 at with 16mhz TURBO whee :-)

Funny enough the 5.25s were actually floppy. The 3.5s weren’t and I’m not sure why we didn’t call them mini hard disks.

If you ever come across a damaged 3,5" floppy disk, rip it apart & see, will you? (plz. don't do this with still-good ones).

In the meanwhile, I'll have your geek card. Thx!

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