Floppy Disk and Hard Disk

1. Floppy Disk :

Floppy is a piece of a plastic that we put into a computer to store information. It is a small plastic magnetic disk enclosed in a stiff envelop with a radial slit, used to store data or program for a micro computer. Floppy disks basically come in two size - Floppy disks 5 1/4" and 3 1/2".

Floppy disk basically have three common features :

Label area, Read/Write opening, and Write protect notch.

Label area :

This area has been assigned to the label that can be fixed on the floppy which indicates what information/data is stored in it.

Read/Write Opening :

This is the area where the read/write heads of the floppy disk drive can access the disk. It means that through this area, the computer is able to read/write content from/to the floppy disk. It is advisable never to touch this area as this may lead to destruction of data stored in the floppy.

Write Protect Notch :

This prevents you or anyone else from accidently or deliberately changing or erasing anything from the diskette. It means when your diskette is write protected, we cannot add or delete any information to it. But we can read or copy the contents of that diskette on to the computer.

Inserting a Floppy Disk :

To insert a floppy disk, hold it with the label side up and towards you. Place the disk into the drive. When the drive reads or writes data, a red or green light glows. As long as the light is ON, the floppy should not be removed from it.

2. Hard Disk :

A hard disk, is also a permanent storage, where we can store lot of information. Capacity of a hard disk is measured in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB) and they come in various different sizes. Usually every computer now a days comes with hard disk. The hard disk in the computer, can be partitioned into different sizes and labelled as C, D, E etc., The information in hard disk stored in circular magnetic disks called platters, in the form of program files and data files.