5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Floppy Disk | Drawbacks & Benefits of Floppy Disk

What is Floppy disks ?

Floppy disks (also known as Floppy) is a kind of magnetic storage medium used by the computer systems for storing data. It is nothing but a magnetic disk placed inside a plastic case. The primary function of a floppy disk is to transfer files between computers. 

What is the use of Floppy disks ?

 

Back in earlier days, floppy disks was the most popular way of storage. In fact it has been in the use of more than 20 years. But after the advancement of technology, there were other options with more capacity and efficiency. Some of them which came as a replacement were the hard disk drives, USB flash drives and the optical drives. This has let it down, making it unsuitable for modern applications. Despite of this, there are several benefits of a floppy disk that cannot be ignored. 

 

In this article, I am going to tell you about, 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Floppy Disk | Drawbacks & Benefits of Floppy Disk. Through this post, you will know the pros and cons of using floppy disk.

 

Let's get started,

Advantages of Floppy Disk

 

1.Portability

 

Floppy disks are small and light weighted. Hence, they are easy to carry to the places the user wants. And also there is no need to use any separate case since it is already enclosed in a plastic casing. This makes sure that disks don't get scratch by accident.

 

 

2. Compatibility

 

Floppy disks are still compatible with the older systems. Particularly, computers those made before 2000s does not include a CD/DVD drive. And they are not compatible with the modern storages too. In this case, the only option for transferring files will be a floppy disk.

 

 

3. Cost

 

In terms of pricing too, floppy disks are relatively inexpensive. But the since the production of floppy disks have been stopped long time back, the prices of them cannot be compared to the storage mediums today. However even in those times they cost very little amount to purchase.

 

 

4. Write Protection

 

In addition to the plastic casing, floppy disks also include a small notch which provides a function known as Write Protection. This function ensures that data will not be deleted by accidental formatting.

 

 

5. Booting Disks

 

Floppy disks can also be used as a boot disk where it saves the appropriate boot programs for it to load. For this it should be listed above in the boot sequence. There are also other benefits of booting a disk. It can troubleshoot and check memories for errors. 

Disadvantages of Floppy Disk

 

1. Speed

 

Floppy disks posses very slow data transfer rates. Whenever data is being transferred from a floppy disk onto a PC or the vise versa, it can take considerably long amount of time.

 

 

2. Storage Space

 

Floppies also suffers from limited storage capacity. Compared to most of the modern storage mediums, it offers very less amount of storage space.

 

 

3. Reliability

 

Usage of floppy disks, have been stopped until 2000s. Therefore, after this period, most of the modern computers did not include a floppy disk drive. This makes it unreliable source of storage.

 

 

4. File Corruption

 

External factors such as heat and magnetic fields are known to affect the floppy disks, thus leaving the files on it to get corrupted. Moreover the floppy disks are more vulnerable to the viruses than any other storage mediums. This can also be one of the reasons for the file corruption.

 

 

5. Physical Damages

 

Floppy disks are made up of plastic casing which is very delicate and flexible. If handled without proper care, it can get easily damaged.