All the Things You Should Know about Floppy Disk VS Hard Disk

To make a wise choice, you need to compare two items on several important aspects. By doing so, you can select a suitable and correct one. For instance, you can refer to USB 3.0 vs 3.1 to choose a proper USB port. To choose a suitable edition for game, you are able to compare Minecraft Windows 10 VS Java Version.

Sometimes, you can compare more items for a better choice. For example, if you would like to learn about the current popular operating systems’ performance benchmark, you can compare MacOS 10.15 vs Windows 10 vs Ubuntu 19.10.

Recently, the floppy disk vs hard disk topic is heatedly discussed. Which one is better? Which disk you should pick? To get the answer, you should have a basic understanding of them respectively and then compare them one by one. Finally, you make your own choice. Now, let’s explore them.

Brief Introduction of Floppy Disk and Hard Disk

Floppy disk (also called floppy diskette or disk) is a tiny plastic storage device coated with iron oxide, which can hold no more than 1.44 Megabytes. The disk is enclosed in a plastic jacket. It was developed by IBM in the early 1970s.

The floppy disk can be removed from one computer and inserted into another one because of its portability. As for the speed, the read/write speeds of floppy disks can reach 250-300 bit/s. Floppy disks are also downward compatible, which indicates that they can work with earlier media.

Hard disk (also referred to HDD, hard drive, or fixed disk), a mechanical drive, allows you to store 16TB data (developed in 2019). It is a kind of magnetic disk. As it is fixed on system unit, it is called fixed disk. It consists of lots of circular disks. It enables you to store 2 to 500GB and more data. It’s read/write speeds is 300MB/s.

Floppy Disk VS Hard Disk

Before talking about the difference between hard disk and floppy disk, we’d discuss the similarity of the two disks. The first is that both the two disks are permanent storage devices. The second is that they are called non-volatile memories. Besides, both the two disks work under the same principle. To know more information about how does a hard drive work, please read this: How Does a Hard Drive Work? Here Are Answer for You

Size

Now, the point comes to the difference between hard disk and floppy disk. The common size of a floppy disk is 3 ½ inch. In a word, it is small and portable. On the contrary, the hard disk usually is fixed and not portable.

Costs

A floppy disk is cheaper than a hard disk. You can get a floppy disk by paying about 10 dollars. A hard disk charges you dozens of dollars.  

Capacity

The hard disk can store much more data per square inch of recording surface. A floppy disk is capable of holding 1.44MB data at most, while a hard disk enables you to store 2 to 500GB and even more data. So, if you want to store more data, a hard disk is better.

If you want to buy a hard drive, you can refer to this: Some Details of Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 1TB Hard Drive

Speed

The transfer rate of disk depends on the density of the stored data and the relational speed of disk. The maximum transfer rate of floppy disks is 30, 000 to 150, 000 characters per second. The maximum transfer rate of hard disks is 200, 000 to 2 million characters per second. Besides, he data access speed of a floppy disk slower than that of a hard disk.

The access time of a hard disk is approximately 25 to 70msec, while the time of floppy disk exceeds 100msec.

Storage Data Security Level

The storage data on floppy disk is less safe than that of hard disk. If you seek high data security level, a hard disk is better.

Durability

As the floppy disk is composed of single flat piece of plastic, it can be damaged easily. The hard disk is made of platters and cannot be damaged easily. So, Hard disk vs floppy disk, hard disk wins on the aspect of durability.

Hard vs floppy disk, which one is better? Are you able to make a choice after reading the above content? Hard disk performs better in several aspects. However, if you pick the hard disk, you need to bear its disadvantages like the noise, head crashes, high costs.