disk that is usually 31.2" in diameter; also called afloppy disk, The disk is made of a flexible piece of Mylar. When magnetized, it is able to store biton tracks (circles) on one side if a single-sided floppy disk or on two sides if it is a ouble-sided disk. A floppy disk has sectors that divide each track into sections. Floppy disks are used with floppy disk drives. The latter write information onto diskettes, read the information, or erase it. Floppy disks can be double-density or high-density. A highdensity floppy disk stores more bytethan a double-density one.
a removable flexible magnetic disk on which computer programs and data can be stored. 5¼ -inch diskettes were often called floppy disks because the entire diskette, including cover, was flexible.
Usage note: The alternative term floppy disk is going out of fashion because present-day diskettes have rigid shells.
