Some individuals and organizations continue to use older equipment to read or transfer data from floppy disks.įloppy disks were so common in late 20th-century culture that many electronic and software programs continue to use save icons that look like floppy disks well into the 21st century, as a form of skeuomorphic design. USB drives for 5¼-inch, 8-inch, and other-size floppy disks are rare to non-existent. 3½-inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive. Subsequently, the 5¼-inch and then the 3½-inch became a ubiquitous form of data storage and transfer into the first years of the 21st century.
The first floppy disks, invented and made by IBM, had a disk diameter of 8 inches (203.2 mm). 8-inch, 5 + 1 ⁄ 4-inch, and 3 + 1 ⁄ 2-inch floppy disks 8-inch, 5 + 1 ⁄ 4-inch (full height), and 3 + 1 ⁄ 2-inch drives A 3 + 1 ⁄ 2-inch floppy disk removed from its housing