Computer disc sizes ;-)

[DSCOMAN]

Who remembers the computer discs:
8 inch
5 and a quarter inch
3 and a 1/2 inch
Used them all at various times in my career

[catflap]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

Who remembers the computer discs:
8 inch
5 and a quarter inch
3 and a 1/2 inch
Used them all at various times in my career

Used a 5.25 for a while on one of the older PCs when I started work after uni in '95 (I'm still with the same company!)

I also remember having a 5.25 drive with my Amiga at home a little earlier - remember having to cut the bit out of the corner of the disk so you could use both sides?

[Richard1978]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

IIRC 8 Inch discs were mostly for commercial computers, I've not heard of any home systems that used them.

I've used 5.25 & 3.5 inch discs, & still have some 3.5 inch ones, but rarely use them.

Amstrad had some odd 2.75 inch double sided ones, & I also have an Iomega Zip drive, a format which never really caught on.

My brother used it for archiving before CDRs came along.

At my first job we used WORM drives for storing scanned documents, these were the size of a CD box with a sprung flap like a 3.5 inch disc.

The could be burnt only once, but would store a lot & not get as many errors.

[80sChav]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

I am not sure what sizes they are O.P, but recall many of the discs of differing sizes over the years from when Floppy Drives etc existed before just pressing save (unless of course you wanted to take your disc to another computer elsewhere). Some of my Discs are going on for 20 years old - what good they are now with Computers advancing even further - this sure questions their purpose indeed ... but on the other hand I'm too loathed to part with an early part of my College Career and their not taking up much space either too ... so let them be I say!!

80sChav

[DSCOMAN]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

I bet you can still hear that 'clunking' sound as the disc/k drives wrote to the big discs
and then a checksum !
sticking bits of silver coloured labels over the notch....
putting them in their 3M paper sleeves...
frisbee.ing them across the room when they were 'dead'
...all done watching a flashing green or white square
HAPPY DAYS

Was watching an episode of the Sweeney on tv last night and they had the flashing white square - and when a word was typed in the square would flash awaiting the next character - BUT it displayed a letter...(was this a random letter?)
And there were jobs being advertised in IT for £5,000 per annum.......

[Arran]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

The Amstrad CPC 664 and 6128, and the first generation PCW word processors, used 3 inch disks that could be inserted into the drives two ways round because they could only read one side at a time. The drive mechanisms were manufactured by Hitachi.

[Arran]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

Here's a rarity. The Smith Corona DataDisk used on high end electronic typewriters from the same company in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It's actually a rebranded Mitsumi Quick Disk that was also used on the Nintendo Famicom game console that was only sold in Japan.

[staffslad]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

I remember using 5.25" discs on drives connected to BBC Micros at university and later on IBM PCs. One of my PCs still has a 3.25" drive and I also have an external 3.25" drive, though neither have been used for many years. My old Amiga had a 3.25" drive built into it and I thought it was the bee's knees after having previously used a C128 with cassettes. If I remember correctly, the Amiga discs were formatted to 880kB, rather than the 720kB or 1440kB of PCs.

In the early 90s I recall seeing ads for 128MB 3.25" discs in computer mags, though I never saw one in the flesh. I was very impressed as at the time my PC's hard drive was only 105MB in size.

[Richard1978]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

IIRC Iomega Zip discs were intended to replace floppy discs, with 128 & 256MB sizes, but the drives had a habit of malfunctioning, so the never became standard. Recordable CDs came along a few years later anyway.

[big kid]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

anybody remember the microdrive for the zx spectrum ???

[Richard1978]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

anybody remember the microdrive for the zx spectrum ???

I've never used one but I heard they could be temperamental.

This was a big reason the QL never did well in the "semi-pro" market.

[darren]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

was it built in to the spectrum like the tape deck was on 128k.

anybody remember the microdrive for the zx spectrum ???

[big kid]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

they could be good and then be a absolute nightmare.

[big kid]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

when i had one, it was seperate from the speccy. think the 128s had them built in, but not too sure.

was it built in to the spectrum like the tape deck was on 128k.

[Arran]

Re: Computer disc sizes ;-)

In the early 90s I recall seeing ads for 128MB 3.25" discs in computer mags, though I never saw one in the flesh. I was very impressed as at the time my PC's hard drive was only 105MB in size.

It could have been the Imation SuperDisk LS-120. They were very rare. The drives were backwards compatible with 3.5 inch floppies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperDisk

Floptical disks were an ill-fated attempt to supersede the 3.5 inch floppy in the early 1990s but they only held 21MB of data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floptical

Iomega ZIP drives were not backwards compatible with 3.5 inch floppies.