Verbatim DataLifePlus 3.5-inch Floppy Disk (Digital Storage Media Artefact)

Abstract

A high-density (HD, 1.44 MB, IBM format) Verbatim DataLifePlus 3.5-inch floppy disk from the personal collection of Prof. Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad, documented as a historical artefact of digital storage media. The floppy disk was born in IBM's laboratories in the late 1960s: the 8-inch disk was introduced in 1971 as a program-loading medium for mainframe computers, followed by the 5.25-inch disk made by Shugart Associates in 1976, which became the standard for early personal computers such as the Apple II and the IBM PC (1981). Sony introduced the 3.5-inch disk in 1981, encased in hard plastic with a sliding metal shutter; the 1.44 MB high-density version, marked by a hole and the "HD" logo, such as this disk, became the standard from the late 1980s. Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the 3.5-inch disk was the main means of storing and transferring manuscripts: papers, undergraduate theses, master's theses, and articles were typed on rental or campus computers and then carried on disk to print shops, newspaper editorial offices, or academic supervisors. Its small capacity and vulnerability to damage (mould, magnetic fields, scratches) meant that users often kept several copies. The transition began when CD-R and CD-RW (around 700 MB) became widespread in the late 1990s, and then the USB flash drive (flash disk) was introduced in 2000 with an initial capacity of 8 MB, equivalent to five floppy disks, rapidly growing to gigabytes. The iMac (1998) had already dispensed with the floppy drive, computer manufacturers followed in the mid-2000s, and Sony ceased floppy disk production in 2011. Today its function has been replaced by flash drives, memory cards, and cloud storage, while the floppy disk icon survives as the symbol of the "Save" button in much software. The paper label of this disk bears several layers of handwriting ("Galang II" and "Mas Kamal" crossed out, tick marks, and the word "tesis" [thesis]), indicating reuse from one manuscript to another, a common practice at the time.