4 ms·

I wonder why they vanished immediately. When 3.5" disks came out, didn't people have data on 5.25" disks they wanted to continue to access for a while? I would

by ufmace 6y ago

I wonder why they vanished immediately. When 3.5" disks came out, didn't people have data on 5.25" disks they wanted to continue to access for a while? I would have thought they'd be kept around as second drives on newer computers of the time for at least a few years.

toast0 6y ago
They didn't vanish completely immediately, but it was pretty fast. When 3.5" drives came out, people were mostly buying first computers. A new computer user wouldn't have any old data, and most likely could find software on 3.5" disks as easily as 5.25" (unless they were buying seriously old software). You could certainly buy computers with both, and you could add a 5.25" drive to most computers if you needed to, but 3.5" was so clearly better that few people would.
ansible 6y ago
5.25in drives did not vanish immediately. The transition occurred over a period of years. What really got things going in PC compatible land was the PS/2 series of desktops from IBM, which couldn't even fit a 5.25in drive in the case. At around that time it was somewhat common to buy a new PC that had both 5.25in and 3.5in drives, and the common clone makers (Gateway, Packard Bell, et al) could fit either or both in their more-or-less standard PC/AT form factor cases. For a while you could buy software that was on either format, and in some cases, like for utility software (Norton, etc.) they would include both in the box. Back when you still bought software in boxes...
ohazi 6y ago
The PC was still in its exponential growth phase during each of these transitions. So the total number of computers built with 5.25" vs. 3.5" drives likely differed by at least a few orders of magnitude. Today's USB/SD-only devices outnumber all of the previous generations combined by several more orders of magnitude. Fewer computers means fewer software releases and fewer files that warrant rescuing. I think there was just dramatically less stuff to copy.
sixothree 6y ago
Some older computers added 3.5 drives to them. You would sometimes see both present in a computer. But when you bought a new computer you rarely considered getting both.

by ufmace 6y ago

toast0 6y ago

They didn't vanish completely immediately, but it was pretty fast. When 3.5" drives came out, people were mostly buying first computers. A new computer user wouldn't have any old data, and most likely could find software on 3.5" disks as easily as 5.25" (unless they were buying seriously old software). You could certainly buy computers with both, and you could add a 5.25" drive to most computers if you needed to, but 3.5" was so clearly better that few people would.

ansible 6y ago

5.25in drives did not vanish immediately. The transition occurred over a period of years. What really got things going in PC compatible land was the PS/2 series of desktops from IBM, which couldn't even fit a 5.25in drive in the case. At around that time it was somewhat common to buy a new PC that had both 5.25in and 3.5in drives, and the common clone makers (Gateway, Packard Bell, et al) could fit either or both in their more-or-less standard PC/AT form factor cases. For a while you could buy software that was on either format, and in some cases, like for utility software (Norton, etc.) they would include both in the box. Back when you still bought software in boxes...

ohazi 6y ago

The PC was still in its exponential growth phase during each of these transitions. So the total number of computers built with 5.25" vs. 3.5" drives likely differed by at least a few orders of magnitude. Today's USB/SD-only devices outnumber all of the previous generations combined by several more orders of magnitude. Fewer computers means fewer software releases and fewer files that warrant rescuing. I think there was just dramatically less stuff to copy.

sixothree 6y ago

Some older computers added 3.5 drives to them. You would sometimes see both present in a computer. But when you bought a new computer you rarely considered getting both.