Floppy Faq's   FLOPPY DRIVE INTRODUCTION          If you have spent any time at all working with a computer, then chances are good that you have used a floppy disk at some point. The floppy disk drive (FDD) was the primary means of adding data to a computer until the CD-ROM drive became popular.  In fact, FDDs have been an key component of most personal computers for more than 20 years. Basically, a floppy disk drive reads and writes data to a small, circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape. History of the Floppy Disk Drive     The floppy disk drive (FDD) was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart in 1967. The first floppy drives used an 8-inch disk (later called a "diskette" as it got smaller), which evolved into the 5.25-inch disk that was used on the first IBM Personal Computer in August 1981.  The 5.25-inch disk held 360 kilobytes compared to the 1.44 megabyte capacity of today's 3.5-inch diskette.         The 5.25-inch disks were dubbed "floppy" because the diskette packaging was a very flexible plastic envelope, unlike the rigid case used to hold today's 3.5-inch diskettes.        By the mid-1980s, the improved designs of the read/write heads, along with improvements in the magnetic recording media, led to the less-flexible, 3.5-inch, 1.44-megabyte (MB) capacity FDD in use today.  For a few years, computers had both FDD sizes (3.5-inch and 5.25-inch).     But by the mid-1990s, the 5.25-inch version had fallen out of    popularity, partly because the diskette's recording surface could easily become contaminated by fingerprints through the open access area.     A floppy disk, like a cassette tape, is made from a thin piece of plastic coated with a magnetic material on both sides. However, it is shaped like a disk rather than a long thin ribbon.           The tracks are arranged in concentric rings so that the software can jump from "file 1" to "file 19" without having to fast forward through files 2-18.  The diskette spins like a record and the heads move to the correct track, providing what is known as direct access storage. Floppy Disk Drive Facts Here are some interesting things to note about FDDs: Two floppy disks do not get corrupted if they are stored together, due to the low level of magnetism in each one.   In your PC, there is a twist in the FDD data-ribbon cable -- this twist tells the computer whether the drive is an A-drive or a B-drive.   Like many household appliances, there are really no serviceable parts in today's FDDs. This is because the cost of a new drive is considerably less than the hourly rate typically charged to disassemble and repair a drive.   If you wish to redisplay the data on a diskette drive after changing a diskette, you can simply tap the F5 key (in most Windows applications).   In the corner of every 3.5-inch diskette, there is a small slider. If you uncover the hole by moving the slider, you have protected the data on the diskette from being written over or erased.   Floppy disks, while rarely used to distribute software (as in the past), are still used in these applications: in some Sony digital cameras for software recovery after a system crash or a virus attack when data from one computer is needed on a second computer and the two computers are not networked in bootable diskettes used for updating the BIOS on a personal computer in high-density form, used in the popular Zip drive.   By clicking on the next page button below it will take you directly to our troubleshooting guide