Virtualization Essentials

Configuring a Floppy Disk Drive

While CDs and DVDs are still being used for both commercial and consumer purposes, floppy disks are barely around. The original floppy disks were a made of a round piece of magnetic media sealed in a thin, square, usually black plastic envelope. Both the disk and the envelope were fairly flexible and well, floppy, hence the name. They were one of the first methods of portable storage for moving data files from one system to another. With the spread of personal computers, they were the transportable media of choice. The first floppies, developed during the 1970s, were 8-inches square and could hold 1.2 MB of data. As technology improved, they shrank to 5¼ inches square with roughly the same capacity. By the end ...