Since these machines had no hard disk, the operating system would have to be loaded on one disk, then removed and replaced by another disk containing the application. Small enough to fit in a desktop unit, the usual incarnation offered 360kB of storage space.

The first floppy disk that was used in home machines was the 5¼'. However, they had a small form factor and a rigid case with a slidable write-protect catch, features which would be seen later in the 3½' disk. They remained expensive and did not become standardized. Amstrad incorporated a 3-inch disk drive into their CPC664 and CPC6128 models, among other manufacturers. Home computer manufacturers, who had previously been using tape (compact cassette) to save data too, saw the possibilities for this medium. The reason for the name 'floppy' was that the exterior casing was only soft flexible plastic, leaving them vulnerable to manhandling. Their capacity was extremely limited, by today’s standards, with 160 kilobytes available. These large disks predate the desktop machine, and were mainly used for transferring data between mainframe machines. The original floppy disk was the eight-inch. A typical 3.5in Floppy disk internal drive.

Support for imation superdisk