The media inserted in a floppy drive is a disk or floppy disk; (These words are used interchangeably.) Though 5.25" flappy disks are not prevalent today, it is possible to find them. They have two capacities: 360 KB and 1.2 MB. The disks have a different coating of material on their surface that is significant in determining the amount of data a disk can hold. Manufacturers label 360KB disks in various ways to identify them. The 360KB disks are commonly known as double-sided, double-density and are labeled 2S2D, DS2D, or DSDD to indicate this. Some disks have no label mentioning their strorage capacity. In this situation a technician should be able to guess the disk capacity by just looking at it. A 360KB disk normally has a reinforced center-a darker, thicker material that is sometimes a different color. This is frequently called the hub ring.

1.2MB disks do not have a hub ring. The common name for the 1.2MB disk is double- sided, high density, or simply a high-density disk. However, a 1.2MB floppy is labeled differently than a 360KB floppy disk. The labels you commonly see on a 1.2MB disk are DSHD, 2SHD, or HD located on the outside jacket of the disk. 5.25" disks are protected against accidental erasure by a write-protect notch (a small button that can be moved up and down) found on the right side of the disk.
3.5" floppy disks have two major capacities:

• 720 KB.

• 1.44 MS.

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For a while IBM (International Business Machine) company sold computers that used 2.88 MB disks. no KB disks are double-sided, double¬density and are labeled DSDD, DD, and 2S2D as in 360 KB disks. You can identify a no KB disk by visual inspection. Look at the top of the disk and there is one small window in the lower left corner called the write-protect window. The write-protect window normally has a sliding tab that closes or opens the window. If you close the window, data can be written to the disk. If the window is open, the disk is write¬protected and data cannot be written on the disk. This is true for all 3.5" disks. nOKB disks work best in nOKB drives.

1.44MB disks are high-density disks and are labeled by manufacturers as HD or 2HD. They are easily identified by the presence of two windows on the disk, almost directly across from each other. The extra window on the right side is used by some floppy <.Hives to detect the disk is high density. '1.44MB disks work best in 1.44MB drives and cannot be read by ?lOKB drives. Floppy Table 1 is a summary
table to help you understand the different types of disks and floppy drives.