RIVERS STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NKPOLU OROWORUKWO,PORT HARCOURT.

PRESENTATION TITILE
EXPLAIN HOW DOES THE FLOPPY DISK WORKS AND A LABELLED DIAGRAM

GROUP 5
RICHARD PAUL JEREIAH

DE.2012/4117X

RUFUS ESEPHODE GODPOWER

DE.2012/2882

SADIQ PAUL CHIDEBERE

DE.2012/2838

SUNDAY HAPPINESS WILSON

DE.2012/2878

STEPHEN FAVOUR

DE.2012/2756

TABAH BARIDULE MARTIN

DE.2012/2740

TEME URIEL SAFE

DE.2011/2520

TOFWINDAH HELEN BELE

DE.2012/2738

COURSE CODE - CMS 311

COURSE TITLE - INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SYSTEMS
DEPARTMENT - COMPUTER SCIENCE
FACULTY

- SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION

BRIEF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT FLOPPY DISK

DIAGRAM AND VARIOUS PARTS OF THE FLOPPY DISK
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
HOW THE FLOPPY DISK STORES DATA

BRIEF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT FLOPPY DISK

The floppy disk also called a diskette, is a storage medium (an external storage device
or a secondary memory).
Unlike a flash,disc or hard disk its made up of a disc of thin and flexible
magnetic storage medium sealed in a rectangular plastic,has a corner lined with fabric
that removes dust particles.
The floppy disk is read and written by a floppy disk drive i.e the FDD, it
recognizes the floppy disk when inserted.

DIAGRAM AND VARIOUS PARTS OF THE FLOPPY DISK

FULL VIEW OF THE FLOPPY DISK

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

A hole that indicates a high capacity disk.

The hub that engages with the drive motor.
A shutter that protects the surface when removed from the drive.
The plastic housing
A polyester sheet reducing friction against the disk media as it rotates within the disk
media.
6. The magnetic coated plastic disk.
7. A schematic representation of one of data on the disk, the track and sector are not
visible on actual disk.

The floppy disk stores information from computers and has two main parts: the
protective components and recording components

Protective Components:
These are Components responsible for protecting data stored in the diskette. The
protective components consist of the housing and shutter/spring.

1. Housing

A square protective outer plastic shell with two halves protects

the inner contents of the floppy.

2. Shutter and Spring

The shutter and the spring protect the information recorded on the disk.
The shutter is a piece of metal over the housing. It slides over when inserted into the floppy
drive, allowing access to the floppy and its contents. The spring closes the shutter once the
Disk is removed to keep fingerprints and dust off the floppy.

Recording Components:
These components are responsible for data storage. Several components inside the floppy
relate to the recording process.

Magnetic Disk

The magnetic disk is a round piece of plastic coated with iron oxide, which can be
magnetized. When you save information to a disk, a recording head creates a magnetic
pattern on the iron oxide.
This pattern stores your words or pictures in a form that the computer can read the
next time you put the disk in. However,
Note:
if the write-protect tab is open, you cannot save data.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Write-Protect Tab
This little plastic rectangle is in the upper right corner of most disks. It slides up to
reveal a square hole in the housing (or slides down, to cover the hole). When the
hole is open, the disk is locked. Your computer won't allow you to add anything to
the disk.

Hub
The center of the magnetic disk contains a metal hub containing holes. These holes fit
over spindles inside the computer and hold the disk in place while it spins.

HOW THE FLOPPY DISK STORES DATA

The following six steps explain how these parts of a floppy disk work to record data.
Step 1: Exposing the Recording Surface:
When you insert the floppy disk into the drive, the shutter moves to the side to expose the
magnetic recording surface on the disk preparing storage process.
Step 2: Sending Signals from the Circuit Board
Next, levers and gears move two read/write heads until they almost touch the magnetic disk
on either side. These heads, which are tiny electromagnets, use magnetic pulses to change
the orientation of metallic particles embedded in the disk's coating.
The floppy drive's controller board sends signals to the drive's circuit board, including data
and instructions for writing data to disk. The circuit board then translates the instructions
into signals to control the movement of the disk and the read/write heads.
Step 3: Checking for Write Protection
Next, the circuit board checks if the disk is write protected. If disk access is a write
instruction, the circuit board verifies that light is not visible through the write-protect notch.
If the notch is open and a beam from a light emitting diode can be detected, the drive knows
the disk is write-protected and refuses to record new data.
Step 4: Spinning the Disk
Once the circuit board verifies that data can be written, motor located beneath the disk in
the drive spins a shaft. The shaft then engages a notch on the disks hub, causing the disk to
spin.
Step 5: Positioning the Read/Write Heads
Signals from the circuit board then direct a stepper motor, which can turn a specific
amount in either direction. This motor positions the read/write heads over the
correct location on the recording surface of the disk.
Step 6: Writing the Data
When the heads are in the correct position, electrical impulses create a magnetic field in one
of the heads. Data is written to either the top or bottom surface of the disk.