Floppy disk
| Floppy Disk Drive | |
 8 inch, 5 ¼ inch, and 3 ½ inch drives | |
| Date Invented: | 1969 |
| Invented By: | IBM team led by David Noble |
Connects to:
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A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible ("floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the initials of which should not be confused with "fixed disk drive", which is another term for a hard disk drive. Invented by IBM, floppy disks in 8", 5.25", and 3.5" formats enjoyed many years as a popular and ubiquitous form of storage, from the middle 1970s to the late 1990s. However, they have now been largely superseded by Flash and optical storage devices.
