diskettejä

Diskettejä, often referred to as floppy disks, were a ubiquitous form of portable storage media used primarily from the 1970s to the early 2000s. These flexible magnetic disks, encased in a protective plastic shell, allowed users to store and transfer digital data. The most common formats were the 5.25-inch and the later, more prevalent 3.5-inch diskette.

The 5.25-inch diskette, introduced in the early 1970s, had a relatively low storage capacity, typically around 100-360 kilobytes. Its flexible plastic sleeve offered little protection, and the exposed magnetic surface was susceptible to damage. The 3.5-inch diskette, which emerged in the early 1980s, featured a rigid plastic casing with a sliding metal shutter that protected the magnetic disk inside. This format offered higher capacities, commonly 720 kilobytes and later 1.44 megabytes, becoming the standard for many years.

Diskettejä were read and written to by disk drives, which were integrated into personal computers or available as external peripherals. Their ease of use and relatively low cost made them indispensable for software distribution, data backup, and sharing files between computers before the widespread adoption of the internet and more advanced storage technologies like USB flash drives and optical media. As technology progressed, the limitations of diskette storage capacity and speed became increasingly apparent, leading to their eventual obsolescence.