Over the last few decades or so computers have eased their way into everyday business activities. They play a prominent role in daily tasks in the business world and in our personal lives, as well. On a daily basis we put an incredible amount of information and data into our computers, trusting that it will be there when we need it again. Therefore, storage technology is an important aspect of our computing lifestyles. Today, not only do we have our typical floppy disks, but more recently compact disks and DVDs are also becoming a prevalent storage media. How do we make the decision on which one to use? We must first compare and contrast each one, and then we must determine which one will fit our purpose the best.
The classic floppy disk has within its features a very positive aspect and a very negative one, as well. It has the least capacity of all the storage media, however it is the least expensive. The device, itself, is also the least expensive of all of the storage devices. The floppy disk has a capacity of 1.44 megabytes and costs about thirty cents per disk. The floppy device costs between forty to ninety dollars. A floppy disk is "a round piece of flexible mylar plastic covered with a thin layer of magnetic oxide and sealed inside a protective casing"" (Parsons and Oja 40). It is also called a "floppy"" or "diskette."" The disk is characterized by its write-protect window, which when opened protects the device from being written to or saved to. One main disadvantage to this type of storage media is its slow speed, which is about 0.5 seconds. An advantage, however, is the floppy disk's ability to be transported easily.
The zip disk and the superdisk, which also use the floppy disk technology, is an alternate means to the floppy disk. These have a larger capacity than the floppy, with the zip disk capable of storing 100 or 250 megabytes of data, and the superdisk containing a 250-megabyte capacity.