What is the difference between a floppy disk and a floppy drive?

Answer 1

In some ways, they are kind-of the same. But there are significant differences. Consider that data organization on a computer has been fashioned after what you might find in an office:

An office may have a bunch of related papers. In a computer file system, those papers would be individually identified as files.

The papers are stored in a folder. On a computer, files are stored in a folder, or, directory.

The office folder is stored, along with other related folders, in a drawer of a filing cabinet. In a computer, a drive is analogous to the drawer of the office filing cabinet. The drive, usually identified by a unique letter of the English alphabet, is a volume, or partition. Files and folders in the "folder" of the drive itself are said to be in the root folder.

The office filing cabinet may have multiple drawers. Together, the drawers form a filing cabinet. In a computer, a drive may be one of several volumes (partitions) available on a physical disk. So, the disk itself may be thought of as the filing cabinet.

A drive and a folder on a computer have these things in common:

• Both can store other folders within.
• Both can store files within.
• Both can only be one type of file system.
• Both can have a recorded date of creation.

A drive and a computer folder have these differences:

• The drive is the top-level entity of a disk volume. A folder always has a parent folder, but a drive does not.
• Drives are usually identified by a single letter of the English alphabet. A folder can have most any name, according to the conventions of the file system.
• Folders can have file attributes (like Read-Only, Hidden, Modified Date, etc.) that a drive itself cannot have.
• A drive can have a volume label that identifies the volume. The volume label does not need to be unique. Some drives can also have additional properties, like a quasi-original serial number.
• A drive's letter must be unique in the system to which it's attached (mounted). A folder must have a unique name in the folder it's in, but there can be any number of identically-named folders in other folders.
• A folder (or file) cannot exist without a drive, but the reverse is not true.
• As a drive represents a complete volume (partition), the file system's organization of data relies on it. The entire structure of all files and folders on a drive is stored internally as a part of the drive's data. Formatting a drive initializes this data structure, destroying it if it already exists. You cannot format a folder.
• The "folder" representing a drive is called the root folder (of the drive). No regular folder can be addressed as such. The root folder cannot be deleted, but all of the files and folders in the root folder can be deleted.
• A drive can be released from the system it's attached to, which is called dismounting it. A folder cannot be dismounted, only deleted.
• Some file systems allow mounting a drive as a sub-folder of another drive. In this case, the mounted drive's root folder logically becomes the sub-folder of the other drive. But in reality, the two volumes remain physically separate. One of the volumes can be destroyed or corrupted without affecting the other. The volume that's mounted can still be addressed separately by a unique drive letter.
• A host system may require a special device driver in order to access a drive. A folder is a figment of the drive's file system, and requires no drivers.

Answer 2

Disc refers to OPTICAL media such as DVD's CD's Laser Discs etc.

Disk refers to MAGNETIC media such as Floppy Disk, Hard Disk etc.

In the UK & Australia a flat rounded object is usually spelt as Disc and in the USA its usually spelt as Disk.

Answer 3

A floppy disk is a magnetic disk used to store computer data. A floppy drive is the drive that the disk is inserted into to read and write data on the floppy disk.

Answer 4

Asuming what you mean by drive is disk drive :

Drive is where you put disk into...