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Floppy Disk Drives
Floppy disks are an outdated form of magnetic data storage. Questions about floppy disk drives and floppy disks themselves belong here.
768 Questions
Which has the least amount of storage space a floppy disk or zip disk?
Floppy disks have only 1.44 MB of storage space. ZIP disks have upwards of 100MB of storage space and are much more resistant to magnetic damage at the same time. However, due to cost-effectiveness, neither are especially well-regarded for consumer use anymore. CDs and DVDs are inexpensive and for the same price will hold on average an order of magnitude more data.
The only advantage of a floppy disk, is its ability to boot. As far as storage, floppy disks are obsolete. Not even a Word document with enough attachments can fit on one. Most computers can boot directly off the CD ROM. Newer PC's can boot off a USB Key. But when all else fails, the floppy is always there to save the day when you've crashed your system, and need to boot to reformat/reinstall windows.
How are data files saved on floppy disks?
Put a floppy disk in the drive. With Windows, go to file save as, then go to the drop down box. At the top of that box, go the 3 1/2 floppy and save it.
it is done by a reading light that passes over dints in the disk which is allocated inside the platic cover which forms the binery cod 1 and 0 forming data blocks form the code, e.g
110110010111011101101
thanks boris
The answer above is refering in principle to how CD's work - NOT floppies. Floppy disks store binary data as a series of magnetic dots on the surface of the disk and are written to / read from by a voice coil (electro-magnet).
How do you access information stored on your hard drive?
HOW TO GET DATA OFF YOUR HARD DRIVE When your computer will not boot up or run at all, and you have no back up of your data, there are ways to retrieve your data. COMPUTER WON'T BOOT There are programs that can boot your computer from the floppy drive or the CD drive. If your computer hardware is all good, but windows won't boot the computer, you can probably boot the computer up from the floppy or CD drive.
I have used a programm called "Spotmau Recovery Disk". It is a program that I downloaded from the internet. The computer I was working on would not boot up at all because of a registry error. I didn't want to us the manufacturers recovery disks, because they erase all the data on the hard drive.
The Spotmau program allowed me to run the computer from the CD drive and use a Data Recovery program to copy files from the hard drive to a flash drive. The flash drive plugs into the USB port. A flash drive can be bought at office supply stores and department stores.
Then I transfered the files from the flash drive to the hard drive of another computer.
I couldn't get the registry problem fixed, so I had to run the recovery disks to get the hard drive back to the point where it was when the computer was bought. Then I had to re-install all the software, and copy the files back.
This is all very time consuming, so be prepared for spending a lot of time working on the computer. COMPUTER WILL NOT DO ANYTHING If the computer will not do anything, you will have to remove the hard drive and put it into another computer. It won't even try to boot or you determine there is a hardware problem. DATA WAS DELETED OR OVERWRITTEN There are also programs that will recover deleted files.
Is floppy disc optical storage?
No. Floppy disks are magnetic media that rely on magnetic polarization to write data to the disk much like a hard drive. Unlike CD media they can be erased by a strong magnet field that effectively scrambles the data tracks.
Why do we need to format a disc for use in a computer?
A container called a filesystem needs to be created on the disk before files can be stored on the disk. The files are actually stored in the filesystem. The filesystem is basically a map of which data is stored where, what the filenames and directory names are, which files are in which directories, who owns the files, what permissions the files have, and when the files were last accessed and/or modified.
How many data can a floppy disc hold?
It depends on a few factors.
The size of floppy disk and the size of the CD-ROM.
Floppy disks aren't use very much today, however the latest and most common generation of floppy disks was the 3.5 inch variety with a capacity of 1.44 megabytes of storage. There was a rare 2.88 capacity disk, however for this answer I will refer to the common 1.44MB disk.
CD-ROM's are typically 680 megabytes. There are some CDs that hold 700MB, but again the typical disk is 680MB. Mathematically, this yields 472 floppies per CD. Differences in file sizes and/or block space may shift this slightly.
It's safe to say that a CD can hold 450-470 floppies.
How can you tell that a particular ribbon cable should only be used to connect a floppy drive?
The connectors on the ends of the cable are a different size than the connectors for a standard IDE device like a Hard Drive or CD rom. You should also notice that there is a twist in the cable between two of the connectors.
What does formatting a floppy or hard drive do?
The headers on your file allocation table files are replaced with a special character. This character tells the operating system not toread any files still on the disk. At this point, files can still be recovered. Only if the files are written over will the files be altered and rendered unreadable. If an algorithm is used to write over the files, it may be necessary to write more than once. Otherwise, a decryption algorithm can be used and the files reconstructed.
How do you handle a floppy disk?
It really depends on the extent of the damage. You have to keep in mind that a floppy disk is a magnetic media, and hence the data stored on it is extremely vunerable. My general opinion is that you probably wouldn't be able to repair a physical damage, and hence, you'd end up losing all the data that's on it. Sometimes, if the damage is minimal you may be able to retrieve some data by using file-undeleting/retrieving software. But, this again is a matter of luck.
How many floppy disks will be equivalent to a hard disk of 450 GB?
Its an old square disc. You must be around 14 years young!
How many floppy drives can connect to one floppy drive cable inside a computer case?
Normally a floppy drive interface can be used to connect two floppy disk drives. However this may vary from system to system, some systems may also have two interfaces. It may be necessary to purchase a floppy drive cable with two connection headers.
What are the parts of diskette?
The Drive
The major parts of a FDD include:
- Read/Write Heads: Located on both sides of a diskette, they move together on the same assembly. The heads are not directly opposite each other in an effort to prevent interaction between write operations on each of the two media surfaces. The same head is used for reading and writing, while a second, wider head is used for erasing a track just prior to it being written. This allows the data to be written on a wider "clean slate," without interfering with the analog data on an adjacent track.
- Drive Motor: A very small spindle motor engages the metal hub at the center of the diskette, spinning it at either 300 or 360 rotations per minute (RPM).
- Stepper Motor: This motor makes a precise number of stepped revolutions to move the read/write head assembly to the proper track position. The read/write head assembly is fastened to the stepper motor shaft.
- Mechanical Frame: A system of levers that opens the little protective window on the diskette to allow the read/write heads to touch the dual-sided diskette media. An external button allows the diskette to be ejected, at which point the spring-loaded protective window on the diskette closes.
- Circuit Board: Contains all of the electronics to handle the data read from or written to the diskette. It also controls the stepper-motor control circuits used to move the read/write heads to each track, as well as the movement of the read/write heads toward the diskette surface.
FROM: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/floppy-disk-drive2.htm
What are the advantages of a floppy disk?
Good to store some kind of documents because they can be edited, deleted and have a cool appearance. Moreover you can attach a label to easily find the files. Not proper for images due to their small capacity. But the recorder/reader must be of good quality not to cause breakdowns.
Do the floppies follow direct or serial access?
serial because it takes a lot of time to retrieve information
How data is organized on a magnetic tape disk?
1. When data is recorded onto magnetic tape, it is written in blocks with inter-block gaps between them. The rate at which data is written or read determines how the tape drives will have to cope with the rate at which data goes on and off the tape as well as the rate at which data is supplied to or demanded from the host.
What is maximum storage capacity of a CD?
The maximum storage capacity of a CD-ROM is determined by the size and intended storage of the CD itself. The majority of CD-ROMs sold today are 74 minute and 80 minute discs, the 74 minute disc is rated to hold 650 MB but can actually hold up to 681 MB. The 80 minute disc is rated to hold 700 MB but can hold up to 737 MB.
How do you partition a floppy disk?
First, make sure you have backed everything up and have nothing on the PC you don't want to lose. The FDISK command will overwrite the entire partition table and render everything on the hard drive useless. Then you start FDisk from the console mode, not within Windows, and then you delete the existing partitions if you don't want them, and then start over with partitions sized to what you want.
Do keep in mind that for most cases, you should use a Windows-based partition editor such as EaseUS Partition Master. They are easier to use and lets you configure existing partitions without deleting partitions first.
Can i use a floppy disk in a zip drive?
No. Zip drives cannot read floppy disks, and cannot be used on a traditional floppy controller.
What is a different between the save as and save commands?
if you just save something like a word document and you just click save it wont save the word document in the location you want to save it to where as if you click save as you choose a specific location to save a document.
What is the speed of rotating floppy disk drive?
The speed varies from the size of the floopy disk.
on average it tends to be quite slow. (:
Under all windows operating systems a floppy drive is always formatted using which file system?
FAT or FAT32.
How do you make a disk write protected?
For a CD-ROM to become write-protected, it must either be full, or have it's sessions closed so that no further data can be written to the disk. Here is a brief explanation of disc sessions:
Data burned to a CD or DVD is laid out in sessions. These sessions are composed of a lead-in which holds the table of contents for the disc. Next is the lead out. A blank CD or DVD can only acquire 99 tracks per session. Sometimes multiple sessions are required to burn all content to DVD or CD media. In these cases, the lead in contains an "address" or directions that clue the new session in on the previous burn session history.
So in summary, the odds are that your disc can no longer have information added to it.
Why are floppy disks much less popular as a portable storage system and what replaced them?
They have been significantly succeded by smaller, more rigid forms of data storage media with greater protection and storage capacity.
For more information about the history of floppy disks and storage devices, see Related Links below this box.
