Module 1, Concepts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Floppy disks are flexible magnetic disks held in a protective plastic jacket. They are sometimes known as diskettes. As with hard disks, data is recorded onto concentric circular tracks, divided into sectors.

• Floppy disks can only hold a small amount of data and are also relatively slow — accessing data on a floppy disk will take much longer than accessing data on a hard disk. However, floppy disks are very cheap, as is the drive needed to use them. They are also very portable because most computers have a floppy disk drive. Thus, floppy disks have remained popular despite their lack of speed and capacity.
  
  
• The standard size for a floppy disk is 3½". The floppy disks used with PCs usually have a capacity of 1.44MB. 120MB floppy disks are available, but they are more expensive and a special type of drive is required to use these disks.