Floppy Disk

Before USB thumb-drives and CD-RWs, the floppy was the quintessential, portable method of storing files. Though they were slow and had minimal storage space (1.44MB!), you were likely to find one on any given computer desk in the ’90s. We all knew that we weren’t supposed to touch the black magnetic disk in the middle, since that’s where the computer files were magically stored, but what was actually on that disk? What did it look like? Today we find out!

3.5″ Floppy Magnetic Disk

Similar to the Hard-drive platter, the floppy disk turned out to not have much to look at. The entire surface was a very consistent mess of what almost looks like tightly-packed rice (or supermarket hamburger).  Despite scouring the surface for some clue, I ultimately wasn’t able to find anything but this one view. Since the surface was kinda boring, I only took a single image.

I was eager to see the structures that actually contain the data on the disk, but as you can see, there’s nothing clearly defined here. Maybe the magnetic parts are beneath this odd surface? Oh well, you live and you learn. Better luck next time!