7 ms·

Inside a 3.5" floppy hard-shell is a floppy disk that's made of the same (or very similar) floppy material that a 5.25" and 8" floppy is made of. So I think the

Inside a 3.5" floppy hard-shell is a floppy disk that's made of the same (or very similar) floppy material that a 5.25" and 8" floppy is made of. So I think the term is OK.

SubiculumCode 7y ago
If I remember correctly, you used to be able to actually take the magnetic material out of the sleeve and it would run in the drive.
- MPSimmons 7y ago
  Not on the standard 3.5" but I believe I've seen some (very old very obscure) solutions like that.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- hyperman1 7y ago
  I did one day put a 5 1/4 floppy in the small gap between 2 drive bays. Plonk! Oh well, time to get the screwdriver. I heard it happened a lot at the time.
  - wazoox 7y ago
    Also on the Mac II, when the blank hiding the second floppy slot used to fall down. I remember a secretary calling in distress after having inserted 20 floppies or so inside the Mac to no effect: they were all piling up inside, behind the floppy 2 slot :)
  - levelist_com 7y ago
    Thats ok, anyone who has been a bench tech, field tech, especially in the later 90s to early 2000s, has a similar story to this. Ive had people manage to force CDs between two drive bays and wonder why their CD wasnt being detected. Have had people insert credit cards in floppy drives, etc.. [Edit] there used to be a website, similar to bash.org, that people would submit stories like this all the time of stupid shit they were running into as a tech. Dont recall what it was. There was also and admin site, they may have been the same.
    - simcop2387 7y ago
      One of the older ones was the daily wtf, still around but not nearly as good as it used to be. There's a subreddit /r/talesfromtechsupport that has become my go-to for that now.
    - Dylan16807 7y ago
      http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ ?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- gambiting 7y ago
  You just reminded me of a curiosity that were the DVD-RAM discs - they came in plastic cases with a sliding window(exactly like a floppy) and there were special drives that accepted them in the case. However you could remove it from the case and most regular DVD drives would read and write them without any issues. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM
  - timthorn 7y ago
    The early Apple CDROM drives also took a caddy that you put your disk into.
    - mattl 7y ago
      The proposed Nintendo/Sony CD-ROM was also caddy based.
      - gambiting 7y ago
        I just remembered that UMD discs for the PSP came in a plastic case(which stupidly didn't include a sliding window, leading to the discs getting scratched even though they were in the case).
  - ohyeshedid 7y ago
    My first 1x burner used a cartridge and slot.
  - lathiat 7y ago
    Some good coverage on DVD-RAM & caddys from technology connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls [DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxt5A0KJ9nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxt5A0KJ9nw [Early CD-ROM Drives: Why Did They Require a Caddy?]
- a1369209993 7y ago
  You can technically still do this with 3.5" disks, it's just a invitation for horrible mechanical problems when (not if) the disk touches something it shouldn't or unseats from the drive motor. Also you need to manually push various latches and levers that the sleeve would have run into.

Inside a 3.5" floppy hard-shell is a floppy disk that's made of the same (or very similar) floppy material that a 5.25" and 8" floppy is made of. So I think the term is OK.

SubiculumCode 7y ago

If I remember correctly, you used to be able to actually take the magnetic material out of the sleeve and it would run in the drive.

MPSimmons 7y ago
Not on the standard 3.5" but I believe I've seen some (very old very obscure) solutions like that.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hyperman1 7y ago
I did one day put a 5 1/4 floppy in the small gap between 2 drive bays. Plonk! Oh well, time to get the screwdriver. I heard it happened a lot at the time.
- wazoox 7y ago
  Also on the Mac II, when the blank hiding the second floppy slot used to fall down. I remember a secretary calling in distress after having inserted 20 floppies or so inside the Mac to no effect: they were all piling up inside, behind the floppy 2 slot :)
- levelist_com 7y ago
  Thats ok, anyone who has been a bench tech, field tech, especially in the later 90s to early 2000s, has a similar story to this. Ive had people manage to force CDs between two drive bays and wonder why their CD wasnt being detected. Have had people insert credit cards in floppy drives, etc.. [Edit] there used to be a website, similar to bash.org, that people would submit stories like this all the time of stupid shit they were running into as a tech. Dont recall what it was. There was also and admin site, they may have been the same.
  - simcop2387 7y ago
    One of the older ones was the daily wtf, still around but not nearly as good as it used to be. There's a subreddit /r/talesfromtechsupport that has become my go-to for that now.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ ?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
gambiting 7y ago
You just reminded me of a curiosity that were the DVD-RAM discs - they came in plastic cases with a sliding window(exactly like a floppy) and there were special drives that accepted them in the case. However you could remove it from the case and most regular DVD drives would read and write them without any issues. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-RAM
- timthorn 7y ago
  The early Apple CDROM drives also took a caddy that you put your disk into.
  - mattl 7y ago
    The proposed Nintendo/Sony CD-ROM was also caddy based.
    - gambiting 7y ago
      I just remembered that UMD discs for the PSP came in a plastic case(which stupidly didn't include a sliding window, leading to the discs getting scratched even though they were in the case).
- ohyeshedid 7y ago
  My first 1x burner used a cartridge and slot.
- lathiat 7y ago
  Some good coverage on DVD-RAM & caddys from technology connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls [DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxt5A0KJ9nw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxt5A0KJ9nw [Early CD-ROM Drives: Why Did They Require a Caddy?]
a1369209993 7y ago
You can technically still do this with 3.5" disks, it's just a invitation for horrible mechanical problems when (not if) the disk touches something it shouldn't or unseats from the drive motor. Also you need to manually push various latches and levers that the sleeve would have run into.