Floppy Disks — those little 3.5 inch squares that fit into your computer’s A: drive, have been on the way out for a long time now. But recently, some PC retailers have hit the throttle on the demise of the floppy. In particular, British retailer PC World has decided to discontinue its sale of floppy disks once its current inventory is exhausted[BBC].
Floppy Disk capacity is virtually useless
So why do away with floppies? Simply put, their capacity is a joke compared to the size of today’s files and storage mediums. A floppy disk can hold up to 1.44 megabytes of data. Just how small is that?
- The capacity of an 80 minute CD-R is 486 times larger than a floppy disk.
- The capacity of a DVD is over 5000 times larger than a floppy disk.
- The capacity of a 512mb USB drive is over 350 times larger than a floppy disk.
- The capacity of a computer with a 150 gig hard drive is over 100,000 times larger than a floppy disk.
As you can see, you’d need volumes upon volumes of floppy disks to get the same capacity as modern storage devices.
The files we work with now are too big for a floppy to store
The sorts of files we deal with today are much larger than the ones that made the rounds during the heyday of the floppy disk. Floppies were good at storing text files, small word processing documents, and simple clip-art images with few colors and details. Today, we use our computers to work with large presentations, audio and video files, and high resolution photos. Not even one of these files would likely fit on a floppy disk!
You cannot depend on a floppy
Floppy disks are notorious for going bad. Many college computer labs have signs everywhere that read, “Don’t trust your work to a floppy disk! E-mail it to yourself.” You’re taking a big gamble if floppy disks are your main method of storing your work.
The floppy is obsolete
Today is the day to start saving your work to your computer hard drive, external hard drive, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Forget that floppy disks ever existed, because retailers won’t be selling them much longer. Many PC manufacturers don’t even include a floppy drive with a new computer anymore.
