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What's the difference between a "disc" and a "disk"? (2023)
- dTal 8mo agoDisc = round part visible Disk = round part hidden or no round part Have I got it!?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Someone 8mo agoI think their primary difference is disc = optical, disk = magnetic. That’s what they mention first. All of that “in the UK”. Looking at the store, they’re using “SSD Storage” for SSD.
- Symbiote 8mo agoThe British spelling was used by Philips when they launched the Compact Disc with Sony. Disk was used by American companies inventing hard disks, floppy disks etc. British software often used "disc" for both, e.g. RISC OS on Acorn/ARM/Raspberry Pi [1]. [1] https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/RISC_OS_3 https://arcwiki.org.uk/index.php/RISC_OS_3 (see screenshot)
- Wowfunhappy 8mo agoSSD, of course, stands for Solid State Dis[c,k]...
- 9rx 8mo agoSolid State Drive, usually, but when it comes to language anything goes.
- andrewshadura 8mo agoDisck.
- HPsquared 8mo agoSSD could stand for "SSD Storage Device". Bring back recursive acronyms!
- kube-system 8mo agoApple uses “disk” when referring to SSD storage. They still use disc when referring to a CD or DVD Source: the language used in MacOS Tahoe
- ghurtado 8mo agoKinda surprising that the article doesn't mention the actual origin of the words: "Disc" comes from "discus" (the plate thrown in the Olympics) "Disk" comes from "diskette" (French for "small disc") I probably just outed myself as a boomer assuming that was common knowledge.
- rf15 8mo agoYou are (rightfully) saying that they semantically mean kinda the same thing. That doesn't neatly fit any branding guideline though, I'm sorry.
- bitwize 8mo agoBoth versions are disque in French. (presumably disquette for "diskette") Don't blame the French for this. The fact of the matter is that the spelling "disk" probably entered common use from IBM who invented both the hard and the floppy disk, calling the latter the Type 1 Diskette. Enough people were exposed to the "disk" spelling from IBM usage that it kind of stuck, although in the early 1980s the spelling "floppy disc" was sometimes encountered.
- forty 8mo agoDisquette* In French we say disque for both. it's pronounced the same as disk and disc.
- DonHopkins 8mo agoPff! Disc comes from Disco!
- coffee-- 8mo agoThere was a subculture communicating on FIDOnet about collecting AOL installation media (3.5" disks) and reusing them. Somehow we ended up coining the term "bisk" to refer to AOL's given-away media, and much sadness was had when they moved to CDs. So add one more to the list: a commercial disk reused for your custom .WAD files can be a bisk.
- ChrisArchitect 8mo ago"Disks" as in floppy disks, are removable also. Some weird seperation choices in this 'article'.
- dcminter 8mo agoPlus a common alternative to "hard drive" was "hard disk." My late father never quite got out of the habit of calling it the "Winchester" - itself a nickname for a specific IBM drive model.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- onraglanroad 8mo agoMore modern hard disks included the drive mechanism in one unit. They used to be separate, so you would mount the hard disk on the drive to make it accessible.
- dcminter 8mo agoYeah, we used to have a couple of the removable phoenix platters knocking around. Of course now everything tends to be solid state even terms like "drive" are becoming less common.
- rikthevik 8mo agoA disc looks like a disc, and a disk doesn't look like a disc.
- karmakaze 8mo agoRemoveable glass magnetic platters were called disk packs and definitely disc shaped (but sometimes cylindrical if it had many platters).
- fainpul 8mo agoAnd where is the "drive" in an SSD? Trying to explain arbitrary words with logic always fails.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- actionfromafar 8mo agoSame as the Alcubierre drive! ;)
- gaigalas 8mo agoApple, the etymology company.
- OhMeadhbh 8mo agoThey certainly do have bugs. [Edit. Sorry, misread your comment as saying "entomology."]
- dheera 8mo agoWhat about bloc vs block
- bonesss 8mo agoThe last letter. [Did I pass the interview? No? Understandable.]
- MarkusQ 8mo agoThis is goofy. The difference was originally regional (US/UK), and which caught on depended on which product dominated which sub-market. There's no semantic difference.
- innocentoldguy 8mo agoPhilips is the company that came up with the term "Compact Disc" for CDs, so we can blame them for goofing up the regional spellings and making the world more confusing. I think Alan Shugart (or at least his team at IBM) started calling portable data disks "floppy disks," and then "hard disk" emerged to differentiate rigid disks from bendy ones. Maybe we can also blame him and his team. The important thing is that someone gets blamed. :D
- Gualdrapo 8mo agoWhen I was much more active in Reddit did one time a meme for r/peloton of Froome yelling at disc brakes - but wrote it as "Old man yells at disk brakes". Nobody told me anything so I guessed it was good grammar and such. But then noticed everyone calls them "disc brakes"
- ndsipa_pomu 8mo agoShould be "rotor brakes"
- adamdonahue 8mo agoSo a floppy disk has a disc inside?
- irishcoffee 8mo agoSure does.
- KwanEsq 8mo agoNo because they weren't optical, they were magnetic.
- onraglanroad 8mo agoYes it did. They were magnetic disks. And they were floppy. The outer case of a 3.5" was solid but just rip it open and you can see the disk itself is floppy. Edit: oh right, you're talking about the different spellings. Those were entirely arbitrary. We mixed between the two.
- sedatk 8mo agoThe term "disc" for storage predates optical media. "Disc" was the common spelling for a disk (like a floppy disk) on British 8-bit computers like Amstrad CPC or Sinclair Spectrum.[1][2] It seems like the distinction simply comes from British and American preferences.[3] I have no idea how Apple jumped to such an arbitrary conclusion. [1] Kempston Disc Interface manual: https://k1.spdns.de/Vintage/Sinclair/82/Peripherals/Disc%20Interfaces/Kempston%20Disc%20Interface/Kempston%20Disc%20Interface%20Manual.pdf https://k1.spdns.de/Vintage/Sinclair/82/Peripherals/Disc%20I... [2] Amstrad Disc Drive Interface manual: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/3/3f/DDI-1_User_Manual.pdf https://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/3/3f/DDI-1_User_Manual.pdf [3] Etymonline entry for "disk": https://www.etymonline.com/word/disk https://www.etymonline.com/word/disk
- Doctor_Fegg 8mo agoDisk was already the standard spelling in the UK by 1984 (in a computing context), just as program was used in preference to programme. But Amstrad mistyped it as disc on the plastic mouldings for their first CPC, and were too cheap to change them. Consequently CPC 3in disks were always called discs even into the 90s.
- sedatk 8mo agoDid Acorn also misspell it in BBC Micro manual in 1984? https://archive.org/details/BBCUG/page/n19/mode/2up?q=disc https://archive.org/details/BBCUG/page/n19/mode/2up?q=disc
- DemocracyFTW2 8mo agoThat's "Akorn" and "BBC Mikro"
- prewett 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 8mo ago
- OhMeadhbh 8mo agoTron, if I remember correctly, had DISCS instead of DISKS. And if modern CPUs are RISCy, then maybe modern Intel architecture CPUs are Risky.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- bmacho 8mo ago> In most varieties of English, disk is the preferred spelling for magnetic media (hence floppy disk, hard disk, disk drive), whereas disc is preferred for optical media (hence compact disc, digital versatile disc, optical disc). > For all other uses, disk is preferred in American English and acceptable in Canadian English, and disc otherwise. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disk#Usage_notes https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disk#Usage_notes
- sandworm101 8mo agoAlso, disk is also used in "diskette", whereas disc stands alone. So as magnetic disks shrank and were called disketts on and off, they kept that spelling. Optical discs never really shrank over the years, never being called discettes.
- oneplane 8mo agoWhen they shrank the disc it just became minidisc ;-) But that was technically MO, not just optical. And: it was in a cartridge so I suppose they really should have called it minidisk.
- irishcoffee 8mo ago[flagged]
- sandworm101 8mo agoLol. Old enough to remember when disks were three-dimensional, when you might need more than one hand to carry them. When they shrank we regularly called the newer/small model a diskette. From wikipedia: >> A floppy disk, diskette, or floppy diskette is a type of disk storage made from a thin, flexible disk coated with a magnetic storage medium. It is enclosed in a square or nearly square plastic shell lined with fabric to help remove dust from the spinning disk.
- karmakaze 8mo agoIt's all photons baby, sometimes virtual.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- delichon 8mo agosceptic - skeptic mollusc - mollusk celt - kelt cabob - kabob disc - disk Corporate wants you to find the difference.
- 9rx 8mo agosceptic - someone inclined to question or doubt what they sense optically. skeptic - someone inclined to question or doubt what they sense magnetically.
- asdfman123 8mo agoAs a quick and dirty heuristic: the C in disc is for CD (or other optical media).
- addaon 8mo agoAlways thought that “disc” was the original word for an object of a certain shape. As they evolved for computer storage, we got smaller diskettes… which were abbreviated to disks.
- irishcoffee 8mo agoDoes anyone have a spate tire? My tyre popped, probably because someone jammed a 'y' in the middle.
- dboreham 8mo agoPresumably this apple page is someone's idea of an April fool, date notwithstanding. "Disc" is the correct spelling of the flat circular thing. "Disk" was invented by someone in the 1980s either as an attempt at a trade name, or because they couldn't spell. Then other people continued the mis spelling.
- jimnotgym 8mo agoThis must be the right answer.
- _wire_ 8mo agoA disk is any planar circular shape. A disc is a disk-shaped object, such as in the form of a plastic dingus: Frisbee flying disc.
- RupertSalt 8mo agoA disc jockey is an entertainer who spins records or compact discs to play music. A discothèque is a nightclub where disc jockeys can perform live, spinning to create a party atmosphere for socializing and dancing. In the United States, the word was quickly shortened to "disco" and became closely associated with the mirror ball on the ceiling and the eponymous style of music and dancing. So when new styles of music overtook the nightclubs, they shed the "disco" appellation as well. It seems to still enjoy a lot of use in European cities, though.
- mieses 8mo agoδίσκος
- satiated_grue 8mo agoI certainly remember magnetic media being referred to as "disc". For one quickly Googled example, the Sperry Univac 8433, may its heads never crash: https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/1100/brochures/U5737_8433_Disc_Storage_Subsystem_Brochure_Feb75.pdf https://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/1100/brochure...