Super Disk
Alternatively referred to as an LS-120 and LS-240, the SuperDisk is a disk drive and diskette introduced by 3M, which later became Imation. The drive was most popular with OEM computers, such as Compaq and Packard Bell computers.
The original SuperDisk (shown right) is capable of holding 120 MB on a single disk the same size of a traditional 1.44 MB floppy diskette. Later, SuperDisks were capable of holding 240 MB. The SuperDisk drive was also backward compatible with 1.44 MB disks. Its available interfaces were IDE/ATAPI, parallel port, SCSI, and USB.
The SuperDisk did not become very popular primarily because of the Iomega Zip drive, which had already gained success before the SuperDisk was released. Today, neither the SuperDisk or the Zip drive are used because of technology like the CD-R disc and USB thumb drives.
Floppy Disk
Alternatively referred to as a floppy or floppy disk, a floppy diskette is a type of storage media, capable of storing electronic data, like a computer file. The floppy diskette was first created in 1967 by IBM as an alternative to buying hard drives, which were extremely expensive at the time.
The picture shown on this page is an example of a 3.5" floppy diskette, which was one of the most commonly used floppy diskettes, capable of storing 1.44 MB of data.
Early computers did not have CD-ROM drives or USB, and floppy disks were the only way to install a new program onto a computer or backup your information. If the program was small (less than 1.44 MB for the 3.5" floppy disk) the program could be installed from one floppy disk. However, since most programs were larger than 1.44 MB, most programs required multiple floppy diskettes. For example, the diskette version of Windows 95 came on 13 DMF diskettes and had to be installed one disk at a time.
There are still a few diehards who are still using floppy diskettes, some governments still even use 8" floppy diskettes. However, since the early 2000s computers began no longer shipping with floppy disk drives as users moved to CD-R and Zip drives to store their information. All the latest versions of Microsoft Windows also no longer have support for internal floppy drives.
A floppy disk is a magnetic media and stores and reads data on the floppy disk using a read head. When a 3.5" floppy diskette is inserted into the drive, the metal slide door is opened and exposes the magnetic disk in the floppy diskette. The read/write head uses a magnetic polarity of 0 or 1. Reading this as binary data, the computer can understand what the data is on the platter. For the computer to write information to the platter, the read/write head aligns the magnetic polarities, writing 0's and 1's that can be read later.
Below is a brief history of each of three major floppy diskettes.
The first disk was introduced in 1971. The disk was 8" in diameter with a magnetic coating, enclosed in a cardboard case with the capacity of one megabyte. Conversely to hard drives, the heads touched the disk, like in a cassette or video player that wears the media down over time.
First started development in 1976 and later became a standard in 1978, these disks were first released with only 160 KB of disk space. These diskettes were commonly used in 1980s and began stop being used in the early 1990s. See our 5.25" floppy diskette definition for further information, pictures, and related links.
Created by IBM in 1984, these diskettes were first introduced with a total capacity of 720 KB. The 1.44 MB floppy diskettes were used widely in the 1990s and were seldom found or used by 2000. See our 3.5" floppy diskette definition for further information, pictures, and related links.