Floppy Disks

The antiquated system that controls the U.S. nuclear arsenal quietly got a long-awaited update this summer — eliminating the use of eight-inch floppy disks that are more than 50 years old.

Proving that the technological past — like the future — is not evenly distributed, floppy disks have hung around far longer than most people would have expected. Norway’s nationalized health plan, which once distributed thousands of 3.5-inch disks to physicians every month, only phased out their use a few years ago.

A missile combat crew member inserting a floppy disk into a communication module at a missile alert facility in 2014.  Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The floppy disk was initially created by IBM in 1967, with its name derived from a magnetic disk enclosed in a flexible plastic envelope. Initial versions could hold about 175 KB of data. The disks shrank over time — from eight inches to 5.25, and then to 3.5 — before abruptly falling out of favor, most notably when the iMac debuted without a disk drive in 1998.

The disks haven’t been manufactured for several years, but are still available on Amazon and from specialty retailers. The idea of them, however, may endure as the “save” icon in many modern apps and other software.