Floppy Drives and Disks

the Physical Computer
a Training Module of the
Assistive Technology Division
Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services

The term floppy comes from the fact that the original 8" and 5 1/4" disks acutally were flexible and "floppy". These disks are now considered obsolete. Some think that the 3 1/2 diskettes are headed to the same fate.
3½-inch: Floppy is something of a misnomer for these disks, as they are encased in a rigid envelope. The most common size is 1.44MB (high-density). The write protect switch allows you to make the disk writable or non-writable. When the hole is closed the disk is open. When the hole is open the disk is closed.
	The floppy disk drive (FDD) is mounted in a drive cage. Access to the drive is available through the front of the computer.
On the rear of the floppy disk drive there is the 34 male pin connector and the 4 male pin power connector
Internally the drive is connected to the floopy disk controller on the motherboard via a floppy disk cable. The ribbon cable has 34 pins. It is clearly different from an IDE cable because there is a twist in the cable towards the drive end.