5.25 Inch Floppy Disk

Originally designed as a single-sided, low-density format with a storage capacity of 100 KB, the 5.25-inch floppy disk underwent many enhancements, including the introduction of a double-sided, high-density variant with a capacity of 1.2 MB. Like all floppy disks, the 5.25-inch floppy disk had a magnetic disk inside a case with a hole in the middle and was used with a dedicated disk drive capable of reading the magnetic data from the disk. However, the 5.25-inch floppy disk used a paper cover for the protection of the magnetic face of the disk and there was no other built-in protection. Similar to the 8-inch diskette, it had the same soft jacket and was flimsy. There was no additional robustness found in the 5.25-inch floppy disk.

The 5.25-inch floppy disk was available in different capacities: 360 KB low density, 160 KB single sided and 1.2 MB high density. This floppy disk usually had 10 sectors, and sometimes 16. The introduction of the 3.5-inch floppy disk, which had a larger storage capacity and a rigid case, made the 5.25-inch floppy disk obsolete.