FLOPPY DISKS
Grades 3 and 4
Pretend you've never seen a floppy
disk before.
Look at the outside of it carefully.
What different parts can you find?
Do any of them move?
Does anything change when you move those parts?
Now look
for the places where the disk will come apart.
Mrs. Mintz will carefully pry up the metal rectangle called the shutter.
It folds over one edge of the
disk.
She will pull it off and put it aside.
Now you can see some slots in
the plastic.
She will gently pry apart the
two flat halves of the disk.
She won't just snap the disk
apart, or she’ll lose the tiny spring inside.
It holds the shutter closed
and may jump out, so watch for it.
The plastic at the corners of
the disk will probably crack or break off.
That's okay.
Do the two halves of the disk
look the same?
What parts can you see?
Here are all the parts of the
disk that you can find if you look carefully:
A Metal Shutter
A Spring
A brown plastic circle from a metal center or Hub
Two white Paper Rings
A small black plastic rectangle with legs, Write Protect Tab
A small plastic Flap
Two plastic squares that hold everything else, Housing
Can you guess why each of these parts is
there?
How do you think they work together when the
disk is inside the computer?
Inside
a computer disk.
When you take apart a
3.5-inch disk, you'll end up with two colored plastic squares (the housing)
that hold the other, smaller parts. Here's a guide to what each of those parts is, and what it does when the disk is inside your computer.
Shutter
This
is a piece of metal folded over one edge of the disk. That edge goes into the computer
first. Inside the computer, the shutter slides over, and the information on the
disk can be read through the rectangular slot.
Spring
When the disk comes out of the
machine, the spring snaps the shutter closed again so no dust or fingerprints
can get onto the magnetic disk.
Magnetic Disk
This round piece of plastic is coated with iron oxide. Iron oxide can be
magnetized. When you save information to a disk, a recording head creates a
magnetic pattern on the iron oxide. The pattern stores your words or pictures
in a form that the computer can read the next time you put the disk in.
Hub
The metal center of the magnetic disk.
The holes in the hub are like the hole in the middle of a record-they fit over
spindles inside the computer and hold the disk in place while it spins.
Paper rings
The magnetic disk is sandwiched between two white paper rings. The two rings
are glued down to the plastic housing, and stay still while the disk spins.
They clean the disk, removing microscopic bits of dust.
Write-protect
tab
This little plastic rectangle is in the upper right corner
of most disks. It slides up to reveal a square hole in the housing (or slides
down, to cover the hole). When the hole is open, the disk is locked. Your
computer won't allow you to add anything to the disk or erase anything from it.
Plastic flap
You have to hunt for this piece. It's
tucked away under one of the paper rings. One end is glued down, and the
plastic is bent, just a little. It functions as a simple spring that pushes the
paper ring tight against the surface of the magnetic disk.