Historical Computer Engineering - Floppy Disks
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Floppy Disks

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The 3,5 inch disk

picture of a 3,5 inch drive
Exhibit number 104
3,5 inch drive
YD 701-6031

The smallest of all floppy disk formats had some problems at first, not because of the size or the costs of the drives but because its predecessor, the 5,25 inch floppy disk, which was wide spread at that time. In 1982 a group of floppy disk developers agreed to new format of 3,5 inch as new standard for the future. Sony then built the first computer, which included a drive for this new kind of floppy and 2 years later in the years of 1984 and 1985 other big computer companies like Apple, Atari and Commodore did the same, which meant the 3,5 inch floppy disk overcame the first hurdle for a wider spreading until in 1988 it first outselled its successor. Apple was one of the first companies using the 3,5 inch floppy disk but it as also the first company getting rid of it in 1998. The floppy disk was close to its end of usage when Dell also stopped using it in 2003 but still the 3,5 inch floppy disk is not totally obsolete. In the year 2009 a number of 50.000.000 floppy disks was still sold in whole Europe. It is not even hard to find a usage for them, as for example in windows there is still an option for using the floppy disk in the case you forgot your password for logging into your computer. You can use it then to create a new password and that option is available up to the most current version of Windows 7.