What Does 3.5 Inch Floppy Disk Mean?
The 3.5-inch floppy disk size was introduced in the 1980s, most notably with the original Apple Macintosh. The use of 3.5-inch disks soon spread to other systems, including the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST and the IBM PC and clones. The first disks supported sizes up to 360 KB and 720 KB, with later disks supporting 1.44 MB, which became the most common standard. The term “3.5-inch disk” is used even in countries that normally use the metric system for measurements.
Techopedia Explains 3.5 Inch Floppy Disk
As with the earlier 8-inch and 5.25-inch floppies, 3.5-inch disks are divided into tracks and sectors for locating data. The disk itself, which can be double-sided, is encased in a hard plastic shell with a sliding medal cover to protect it from dirt and fingerprints. A sliding switch opens and closes a hole in the corner of the shell to write-protect the disk.
