© 2023 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY · WNPR
WPKT · WRLI-FM · WEDW-FM · Public Files Contact
ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Some industries still use floppy disks. This is one of the only places to buy them

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When I was little, it was rare for people to have computers in their homes. Then my friend's dad got one which stored data on what looked to me like an audio cassette. Then somebody got a computer that used a thing called a floppy disk. Those disks were everywhere in the 1990s and then became rare. The industry moved on to CDs and flash drives and finally just downloading data instead of physically passing it around. That's where Tom Persky comes in.

TOM PERSKY: This is a technology that is extremely stable, extremely well-understood, not really hackable, and performs an unbelievably great job for very small bits of data.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Persky is the president of floppydisk.com, one of the few places on the internet where you can still buy floppy disks.

PERSKY: The best day for me is when somebody calls me up and says, hey, we're cleaning out our warehouse. And back in the corner, we found a pallet of floppy disks, and we're about to take them to the dump. Will you take them off our hands?

INSKEEP: He will. And he'll resell them to computer hobbyists, artists, and even the airline industry.

PERSKY: If you made an airplane 20 years ago and you wanted to get the information in and out of the avionics, you would use the up-to-date, high-tech system available to you, which 20 years ago was a floppy disk.

MARTÍNEZ: As recently as 2020, British Airways still had some Boeing 747s that used floppy disks to update their navigation data.

PERSKY: For people who depend on older medical technology or older aviation technology or older industrial manufacturing technology, they're going to continue to use it for as long as it continues to serve their purposes.

MARTÍNEZ: Even people who never use a floppy disk see an image of one. A disk shows up as the save icon in many computer apps most of us use every day.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T COPY THAT FLOPPY")

ME HART: (Rapping) We protect it by law. We value so highly what the mind's eye saw. Don't copy, don't copy that floppy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Stand up for civility

This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Public’s Members — listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. As a community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years.

Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are building a better—and more civil—Connecticut to live, work, and play.