How Floppy Disks Work
... 5” FLOPPY DISKS, AND THEIR DRIVES. Floppy disks have been used for a number of years and have been developed in an attempt to keep up with the ever advancing world of computers. Some think that the floppy will soon enough become almost extinct as the race to increase the speed and capacity of computers and their peripherals continues. ... Floppy disks are a type of storage that the user can transport all over the world. Most computer systems will have (or access to) a floppy disk drive, thus making the floppy disk usable almost anywhere in the world. WHAT ARE FLOPPY DISKS MADE OF? The floppy disk was originally named this because of the way it holds data, on a floppy plastic material with a ferromagnetic iron oxide coating. ... The plastic casing has several other devices attached to it; the metal shutter, once the floppy disk has been inserted into the drive, the shutter slides across to let the drive read off of the magnetic disk; the hub, a small, circular metal centre to the casing, has holes to allow the drive to hold the disk in place while it spins; the spring, this snaps the shutter shut, to stop dust and fragments getting on to the magnetic disk whilst it is out of the drive; paper rings, these clean off the magnetic disk as it spins, they are glued to the inside of the casing.