How Does a Floppy Disk Work?

1. A floppy disk is an obsolete storage format that was used on personal computers. Each disk, typically 3.5 inches in height, held 1.44 megabytes of data.
   Inside the hard plastic case of the floppy disk is a magnetic material used to store data. It is a similar material to the recording material in a cassette tape. When inserted into a drive, the magnetic tape (which is in the shape of a circle) is spun around rapidly, much like a CD.
2. While spinning, the read/write head of the disk stops at the empty track on the disk. The computer, before sending any information to the disk, quickly checks for things like system stability and whether or not the necessary space is free on the disk.
3. The write head of the disk sends data to the disk by magnetizing certain parts of the magnetic recording tape. This process is similar in theory to the way the magnetic strip on a credit card works. Once the data is on the floppy, an exact copy has been made--one is on the disk, one is on your computer. You can now take the floppy disk to any computer with a floppy drive and access your files.