FLOPPY Drive

• The floppy disk is a magnetic round disk enclosed in a plastic jacket.
• The size of the first floppy disks was 8 inches.
• The size of the floppy disk was reduced to 5.25 inches. These floppy disks were flexible.
• The 3.5 inch floppy disk was standardized by the industry and was available in a hard plastic jacket.
• The 3.5 inch floppy disk was a write protect tab to protect the stored data.
• The read write head of the floppy disk reads data from and writes data on the floppy disk.
• The double-sided floppy disk drive has two heads on both the sides of the floppy disk drive, to read and write on both sides of the floppy disk.
• The head actuator moves the read write head forward and backward to access all the floppy disk tracks.
• The spindle motor spins the floppy disk in the floppy disk drive.
• The circuit board sends the data signals to the different parts of the floppy disk drive.
• The Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) controller forms the interface between the floppy disk drive and the system.
• The floppy disk is inserted in the floppy disk drive through the front plastic window called the face plate.
• The data cable connects the floppy disk drive to the motherboard.
• The floppy disk drive must be installed for the system to access it.
• Configuring the floppy disk drive assigns it the required drive latter.
• Formatting a floppy disk creates sectors and tracks on the floppy disk.
• Floppy disks that are written in a drive with is head misaligned are readable only in the drive that writes the data on the floppy disk.
• The system required important system file to start the system.
• The bootable floppy disk enables to boot a system when the system files on the hard disk cannot be accessed.