System disk with packaging, for Dulmont Magnum laptop computer, plastic / metal / cardboard, made by CIS Technologies Inc, Japan, 1983
This object is significant in that it is part of the Australian-made Dulmont laptop computer; and it is an example of a now outdated data storage device.
The disk was made by CIS Technologies Inc, Japan, 1983.
Floppy disks, also known as floppies or diskettes (a name chosen in order to be similar to the word 'cassette'), were ubiquitous in the 1980s and 1990s, being used on home and personal computer ('PC') platforms such as the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, and IBM PC to distribute software, transfer data between computers, and create small backups. Before the popularization of the hard drive for PCs, floppy disks were typically used to store a computer's operating system (OS), application software, and other data. Many home computers had their primary OS kernels stored permanently in on-board ROM chips, but stored the disk operating system on a floppy, whether it be a proprietary system, CP/M, or, later, DOS. Since the floppy drive was the primary means of storing programs, it was typically designated as the 'A:' drive. The second floppy drive was the 'B:' drive. And those with the luxury of a hard drive were designated the 'C:' drive, a convention that remains with us today long after the decline of the floppy disk's utility.