I remember these. That's where the term "floppy" originated. We used to use them in twin 8" floppy drive CASUs and Pericoms - 4 drives in all because of the double sided disks. Pre DOS of course, running CPM. A real trip down memory lane - you couldn't use the disks straight out of the box. What was it now, Format, Sysgen and Verify? Something like that anyway.
Thinking back now to 1984 (we moved over to DOS in 1986). Double sided program disk in the top drive (A and B) and double sided data disk in the bottom drive (C and D). We used to stick Dymo labels above and below each slot to assist with data backups. The drill was to remove the program disk from the top drive and shove in the backup floppy, type something like "PIP A: = C: *.* VO" and keep your fingers crossed that you'd got it the right way round. Sounds daft now, but at that time the only keyboard experience we had was with manual typewriters and CPM would happily copy a blank disk on to a backup already containing data! None of these cosy "are you sure?" warnings. CPM just did what you asked it to do. We learned about backups the hard way.
In my loft, I have a few of the original heavy 8" floppy cardboard boxes, now holding 7" vinyl audio singles. I also use some of the original 5�" plastic boxes for storing cds in their jewel cases - makes for easier cataloguing of stuff, OSs in one, OS X apps in another and so on.
Thanks for the "blast from the past".
David
On Monday, December 22, 2003, at 05:23 pm, Obrecht, Jerry A wrote:
If you can remember the 5 1/4", how about the 8" floppy? Saw these on old Wang PCs in the late 80's. Not sure if they were called "floppy", but they pre-dated the 5 1/4" and were otherwise very similar. The 5 1/4" was probably viewed as a big step forward.
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