A diskette is a
random access, removable data
storage medium that can be used with
personal computers.
The term usually refers to the
magnetic medium housed in a rigid
plastic cartridge measuring 3.5
inches square and about 2
millimeters thick. Also called a
"3.5-inch diskette," it can store up
to 1.44 megabytes (MB) of data.
Although many personal computers
today come with a 3.5-inch diskette
drive pre-installed, some notebook
computer s and
centrally-administered desktop
computers omit them.
Some older computers provide drives
for magnetic diskettes that are 5.25
inches square, about 1 millimeter
thick, and capable of holding 1.2
megabytes of data.
These were sometimes called "floppy
disks" or "floppies" because their
housings are flexible. In recent
years, 5.25-inch diskettes have been
largely replaced by 3.5-inch
diskettes, which are physically more
rugged. Many people also call the
newer hard-cased diskette a
"floppy."
Magnetic diskettes are convenient
for storing individual files and
small programs. However, the
magneto-optical (MO) disk is more
popular for mass storage, backup,
and archiving. An MO diskette is
only a little larger, physically,
than a conventional 3.5-inch
magnetic diskette. But because of
the sophisticated read/write
technology, the MO diskette can
store many times more data.
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