Magnetic disks are the most widely used storage medium for personal computers. A magnetic disk consists of a circular piece of metal or plastic who's 56 Information processes and technology Function surface has been coated with a thin layer of magnetic material.
Magnetic disks come in different forms which include:
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- Disk drive - This is a device on which a magnetic disk is mounted. The disk drive spins the disk and uses one or more heads to read and write data. If the disk is permanently attached to the drive, it is called a fixed disk (hard disk).
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- Floppy disk/diskette - This a magnetic disk made of flexible plastic and covered with magnetic material. Even though floppy disks do not have a large storage capacity and are slower than a hard drive for accessing data, they are a portable and cheap storage medium.
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- Hard disk - This is a magnetic disk made of metal or glass and covered with magnetic material. It is rigid and not flexible like a floppy disk. This rigid construction allows it to be rotated 10–100 times faster than a floppy disk, giving it faster access to data. Hard disks store more data than floppy disks because the data is stored more densely.