History of the floppy disk

A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a thin and flexible magnetic storage medium encased in a rectangular plastic carrier. It is read and written using a floppy disk drive (FDD). Floppy disks were an almost universal data format from the 1970s into the 1990s, used for primary data storage as well as for backup and data transfers between computers.

In 1967, at an IBM facility in San Jose, California, work began on a drive that led to the world's first floppy disk and disk drive.^[1] It was introduced into the market in an 8-inch (20 cm) format in 1971. The more conveniently sized 5¼-inch disks were introduced in 1976, and became almost universal on dedicated word processing systems and personal computers.^[2] This format was more slowly replaced by the 3½-inch format, first introduced in 1982. There was a significant period where both were popular.^[3] A number of other variant sizes were introduced over time, with limited market success.

Floppy disks remained a popular medium for nearly 40 years, but their use was declining by the mid- to late 1990s.^[4] The introduction of high speed computer networking and formats based on the new NAND flash technique (like USB flash drives and memory cards) led to the eventual disappearance of the floppy disk as a standard feature of microcomputers, with a notable point in this conversion being the introduction of the floppy-less iMac in 1998. After 2000, floppy disks were increasingly rare and used primarily with older hardware, especially with legacy industrial and musical equipment.^[5]

Sony manufactured its last new floppy disks in 2011.^[6]