3.5-inch floppy disks
The 3.5-inch floppy disk is a portable, magnetic data storage medium encased in a rigid plastic shell with a sliding metal shutter, designed for widespread use with personal computers. It offered a more robust and compact solution compared to its larger, flimsier predecessors, becoming the…
Key facts
- First appeared
- 1980
- Category
- technology
- Problem solved
- The 3.5-inch floppy disk was created to address the fragility, physical size, and limited storage capacity of earlier floppy disk formats, particularly the 5.25-inch disk. It provided a more durable, compact, and higher-capacity portable storage solution for software distribution, data backup, and file transfer in the burgeoning personal computer market.
- Platforms
- Apple Macintosh, Many other personal computer systems of the 1980s and 1990s, IBM PC compatibles, Atari ST, Amiga
Related technologies
Notable users
- Apple Inc.
- Compaq
- Microsoft Corporation
- Software publishers
- IBM
- Dell
- Hewlett-Packard
- Individual consumers