Computer Hardware Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a circular piece of thin, flexible (i.e. "floppy") magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD. Unlike most hard disks, floppy disks (often called floppies or diskettes) are portable, because you can remove them from a disk drive. Floppy disks are slower to access than hard disks and have less storage capacity, but they are much less expensive.

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floppy disk