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The differences in disk size and software needed to access the Hawking material is typical of the early floppy disk era. "There wasn't one system that dominated the market," Talboom explains. "It was a bit of a wild west out there."

Good heavens this makes me feel ancient. Do today's BBC readers really not know that there were two main sizes of floppy disk?



That wouldn't be at all surprising, no. Floppy disks were all but gone by the turn of the century. People born after 9/11, who will never have encountered floppy disks, are in their mid-20s and having their own kids by now.


I saw only one size of floppy disks in my life and I'm 35.


I mean.. no?

8"

5 1/4"

3 1/2"

and a couple less standard ones, then you get into sectoring (hard, soft), sidedness and density, plus disk formats on top of that



proprietary zip and later jaz drives as well


Hah I still have some Zip disks sitting in a drawer, completely unreadable


i don't think that's the type of knowledge you can expect fron even contenporary non-technical readers




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