Talk:Disk density

"Single" vs. "Double" Density
This article is written in a way that seems to help perpetuate the myth that there's a difference between "single" and "double" density diskettes ("Single density (SD or 1D) describes the first generation of floppy disks...")

Only two types of floppy disk media were commonly used for 8" and 5.25" diskettes: the original media (usually called "1D" for single-sided and "2D" or "2DD" for double-sided media here in Japan) and high density (HD). The "single" and "double" density systems use exactly the same media and drives and differ only in the controller. The "quad density" term to indicate twice as many tracks is one I've not seen before and is not even used consistently on this page: in the table 5.25" 40- and 80-track diskettes are referred to as "DD" and "QD" but the 3.5" 40- and 80-track diskettes are both referred to as "DD."

Unless someone's got a better idea, I think the best place to start fixing this might be to rewrite the 8" and 5.25" sections to distinguish the media used (the diskette), wider vs. narrower write heads (the drive; 5.25" only) and encoding (the controller), remove the "QD" designation entirely, and merge columns in the table to make it clear that all 8" and 5.25" non-HD media are are the same, and also that all 3.5" sub-HD media are the same.

Cjs (talk) 02:57, 28 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I've seen the designation QD for 80-track, 250kbit/s MFM recording on 5,25" disks in some places, so I'd rather have that term stay on this page in some way (not necessarily as separate column in the table, though). I've never seen QD used for 3,5" media, mainly because in Europe, 40-track 3,5" formats never were in widespread use. 217.246.63.8 (talk) 10:32, 8 November 2021 (UTC)

"High-density" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect High-density. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 October 22 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. –LaundryPizza03 ( d c̄ ) 18:58, 22 October 2021 (UTC)