home types of media failure service warranty reseller contact us enquiries about us

 
Through the years, there have been many types of storage systems used for computers. Floppy disks used to be the most common storage media around. Like a hard disk, data is stored on spinning disk coated with magnetic media that but the similarity ends there. Floppy disks or floppies or diskettes as they were also called were cheap but were limited in storage, irritatingly slow and has all kinds of durability problems.

The first IBM PCs used cassette tapes for storage and didn’t even have a floppy disk drive. Cassette tapes? Yes, the same ones you used to buy pre-recorded music in. Cassette tapes had an even longer history that started in the early 60’s. In fact, cassette tapes had a stranglehold as a storage device for all things music and even with early micro-computers. Remember the Sony Walkman and the impact it made on music. Cassette tapes were cheap and cheerful but the many moving parts inside meant lots of potential for mechanical failures. Besides that the tape substrate itself could get twisted, distorted or even break, or there could be corrosion of the magnetic coating of the tape on which data is stored. The binder used to bind magnetic particles to the tape substrate could soften, become brittle, lose its cohesiveness, or lose lubrication – all of which would make the tape unplayable.

Back to floppies. With the first IBM PCs you could buy an external floppy disk drive as an extra. It’s ironic that nowadays, you too need to get an external floppy drive if you somehow needed to use a floppy disk on your new PC. Back then, 5 1/4" floppy disks used to be earliest common storage. They succeeded the earlier 8" ones. 5 1/4" floppies were flimsy affairs. They are flexible enough for you to roll through a typewriter – not recommended but some were subjected to such torture! A principal flaw is that a part of the magnetic surface is always exposed.

On IBM-compatibles, the first floppy drive was known as the "A:" drive and the second one, the "B:" drive. Hard disk drives which came later were designated the "C:" drive. This "C:" drive convention for the boot disk remains even though floppy disk drives have long since been taken off the list standard equipment.

The 3 1/5" floppy disks that came later were better constructed in that the magnetic surfaces were covered until they were inserted in the computer. The casing was also more robust than the plastic sleeve of the 5 1/4" floppies. But the speed was still glacial and at its peak with a high-density (HD) diskette you could only store a maximum of 1.44MB of data on a diskette.

Floppies fail because the magnetic disk is highly sensitive to dust, condensation and temperature extremes. Heat will warp floppies. Once the magnetic media is corroded or has fungus growth, the data stored goes. Floppies are also vulnerable to magnetic fields – this would include speakers.

Given the limitations of floppies, there were many clamouring to usurp its throne but none really succeeded. The contenders included the Iomega Zip. From the onset, Zip offered high capacities – for that time – and was well marketed so the product scored high awareness. Introduced at 100MB, the Zip drive’s capacity went up to 750MB at its peak. However, it required a different drive and there was no backward compatibility to the floppy which remained a legacy storage that was surprisingly hard to get shake off.

The SuperDisk (LS-120) was another high scorer. It was attractive as it has a much larger capacity of 120 MB compared to a 1.44MB floppy but the stroke of genius was that the SuperDisk drive was also a floppy drive, and the SuperDisk itself handled pretty much like a floppy.

High-capacity alternatives then included Iomega’s own 1 and 2 GB Jaz, Castlewood Systems’ 2.2GB and later 5.7GB Orb Drive, SyQuest Technology’s 1.5GB SyJet and 1GB SparQ.

Cost-wise although the pricing strategies and specified performance of some were compelling, none of the contenders had the cheap and cheerful appeal of the floppy. It was only until the CD-R drives appeared that the floppy disk finally surrendered its throne.

Some of the products had quality issues like Zip drive’s infamous “click of death” and being essentially either souped-up floppies or external hard drives, they also shared similar problems. Contamination of the magnetic media and heads was a major problem as unlike a hard disk which is sealed, the magnetic media and heads in such products were much more liable to be exposed.