THE floppy disks they are magnetic digital storage media that now belong to a bygone era. With technological progress which has led to the spread of larger and faster media, such as USB sticks and more recently the cloud, the 3.5-inch plastic floppy disk invented by IBM In the 1967 for the vast majority of us it is part of the distant past. Yet, even though technology has moved forward, there are still those who can’t say goodbye to this format which, decades later, continues to be used in specific areas, both by hobbyists and professionals. Who still uses them? And why?
The “modern” uses of floppy disks
One of the most curious examples relating to “modern” uses of floppy disks comes from the musical world. Espen Krafta Norwegian musician and YouTuber, keeps a large collection of floppy disks that he uses for his electronic music. When he is looking for particular, refined, unique sounds, Kraft looks for them among the boxes full of duly labeled floppy disks, which preserve audio samples from vintage synthesizers. For him, using these records is not just a practical act, but an important part of the creative process. The nostalgia that accompanies loading a sample onto an old synthesizer is a moment Kraft describes as magical. Yet, this is just one example of how the format, despite being obsolete, can still stimulate creativity in some individuals.
Another area in which floppy disks are still in use is the industrial one. Although they are now rare, some sectors, like that aerospacestill depend on these disks for critical operations. For example, some Boeing 747s use floppy disks to load software updates on navigation and avionics systems. These aircraft, while no longer common in the skies of the United States or Europe, are still in use in some less developed geographic areas. Long-term system endurance and compatibility with older hardware make floppy disks irreplaceable (at least for the time being) in these circumstances. Below you will also find a video in which you can see this system at work.
And did you know that even some public transport systems, such as the San Francisco Muni Metrowouldn’t they work without floppy disks? In this specific case they are used to load the software necessary for the operation of the stations on a daily basis. «The computer must be told what to do every day.”he reported to BBC a spokesperson for SFMTA (San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency), adding that «without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software permanently”. This computer must be rebooted repeatedly in this way, he adds, and cannot simply be left on, for fear that its memory will degrade. It must be said that the SFMTA is however preparing to abandon this old technology in favor of more modern ones, which should happen between 2027 and the 2028.
Even the IT securitycounterintuitive as it may seem, has found a sort of safe haven in floppy disks. In an era in which the risks linked to cybercrime are increasingly higher, the physical nature of the floppy disk offers a sort of “natural” protection against malware. In this regard, Ken MunroIT security expert at Pen Test Partnersreported:
If the floppy were the only interface, the only way to get the malware (to the computer) would be via the aforementioned floppy disk. This is quite a limiting factor for the attacker.
Even some academic researchers they still use floppy disks today. The neuroscientist Maya Sapiurkafor example, used them in 2016 to archive data during his PhDas the system was perfectly suited to his needs. Same goes for Christian Donohoea researcher who keeps the data relating to experiments on floppy disks, as these allow him to replicate the experiments carried out more faithfully even decades later.
Adrian Demleitner of the University of the Arts of Bern, however, has accumulated an archive of retro games stored on floppy disks. These old games, as well as the save data that records user progress, are a sort of “treasure” for game enthusiasts. retrogaming. In England, Karl Dysonan expert in this particular niche, sells kits for old games, including floppy disks, which are still appreciated by many enthusiasts today. The sensation of “touching” the past, of reliving the authentic experience of loading a game from a floppy, evidently still thrills many gamers.
Because floppy disks have (almost) disappeared
Floppy disks, originally introduced around the 1970s, saw exponential popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, when they were the only way to store and transfer data between computers. As time passed, however, their capabilities have been exceeded. Just think that a 3.5 inch floppy disk can hold a maximum 1.44 MB of dataan insignificant amount of data compared to today’s storage devices that can store several terabytes of information. If the concept isn’t clear to you, think about the fact that to reach the capacity of a very common 1 TB hard disk it would take something like over 694,000 3.5 inch floppy disks!
Despite these obvious technical limitations, the fascination for floppy disks has not disappeared completely (as we have told you in the previous paragraphs) and, in some areas, it is only recently that these media have been definitively sent into “retirement”. This is the case, for example, of US Army nuclear weapons control system working with floppy disks until the summer of 2019 or, even more recently, of Japanese government which, until the summer of 2024, requested the sending of documents on this medium. One last gem before concluding: the production of floppy disks definitively stopped in March 2011when the Japanese giant Sony he built the last example.