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3½"
Here is the picture of the back ofa standard 3½" floppy
drive.
Floppy Drives are also a requirement for all computers. Most BIOS’s
will not allow the computer to even boot up without the presence of a floppy
drive. The floppy drive is a magnetic storage medium that reads data from
a thin circular disk stored inside of a plastic case. The floppy drive
retrieves the data off of the disk by reading the magnetic encoding. The
information is then sent to the floppy controller to be processed. Each
floppy drive manufacturer uses the same technology, however sometimes they
will make an electric rather than a manual ejection button.
The floppy has a few large downsides to its use, in comparison to other
storage media. The floppy drive is relatively slow in its’ read and write
functions. In addition, the floppy drive can only hold a maximum of 2MB
(depends on tracks per disk). To make matters worse, the floppy controller
is wired into the motherboard. Therefore, if the floppy controller ever
fails, you have to replace the entire motherboard, rather than a simple
$25 card.
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All material and images on these pages are copyright Joseph,Ed. This page was developed for the Thinkquest1999 competition.
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