[HN Gopher] 3M Diskette Reference Manual (1983) [pdf]
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3M Diskette Reference Manual (1983) [pdf]
Author : susam
Score : 110 points
Date : 2025-10-27 23:44 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (retrocmp.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (retrocmp.de)
| mrblampo wrote:
| This is pretty cool
| pilaf wrote:
| I get a 403 error. Any mirrors?
| glxxyz wrote:
| Check the diskette for physical damage on the recording surface
| and at the hub centerhole.
| BoorishBears wrote:
| The liner inside the jacket cartridge is a special-purpose,
| non-woven, highly-durable fabric... so I'd be surprised if
| there was any physical damage.
| codeulike wrote:
| Oh there was definitely possibility of damage
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| worked for me so idk
| kalleboo wrote:
| Same here. Even going directly to the front page it's a 403.
|
| Looks like it's on the Internet Archive
| https://web.archive.org/web/20241104214425/https://retrocmp....
| vincheezel wrote:
| That's the first time I've ever read the measurement
| "microinches"
| summa_tech wrote:
| You see it used sometimes for plating thickness, for instance
| gold plating on PCBs or connectors.
| userbinator wrote:
| 1/1000th of a thou.
| blueflow wrote:
| First steps with the metric system. About time!
| commandersaki wrote:
| Back when things came with real documentation.
| billfor wrote:
| It's interesting that the index hole is not on y-axis, if it is
| actually used to allow operations. I used all my SS 5.25" as DS
| just by flipping them I think, and they just worked. You weren't
| supposed to do that, but all the SS diskettes were coated on the
| other side, so you just fliped it and it would work, but it
| wouldn't be certified for that use case.
| teddyh wrote:
| From what I heard, the index hole was not used except by
| _extremely_ old systems; i.e. IBM PCs _never_ used them.
| Tuna-Fish wrote:
| As soon as the motors used to spin drives were able to provide
| a once per rotation signal to replace the index hole, the hole
| was no longer used for anything. The detector and lamp used to
| detect the hole were more expensive than using a signal from
| the motor.
| zkmon wrote:
| Includes a bit about manufacturing process and disk writing as
| well. Amazing!
| herpessimplex10 wrote:
| For all of computing eternity, the only person I've ever heard
| refer to it as a "diskette" is icon-lady Susan Kare.
| jmorenoamor wrote:
| Diskette or disquete was a popular term in Spain for floppies,
| both 3 and 5 inches. In fact everyone called the disk drive
| "disquetera".
| proactivesvcs wrote:
| At 1,685,278 bytes this almost fits on within the hallowed 1.44
| megabytes. Maybe the front and rear covers can be discarded?
| manwithaplan wrote:
| It should fit on an DMF MF-2HD (standard double-sided, high
| density, 90 millimeters microfloppy formatted in Distribution
| Media Format, holding 1'720'320 bytes).
| Tuna-Fish wrote:
| A storage disk doesn't need ability to do random block writes,
| if you ditch that you can remove the sector gaps and put more
| sectors on the drive. The Microsoft DMF format and utility can
| put 1,720,320 bytes on a drive.
| iberator wrote:
| Linux can do this as well.
| alentred wrote:
| Just recently I wanted to show my kids the 5.25" floppy disk - I
| had a small stack somewhere, but could not find it. I have
| finally found an 31/2" floppy and have shown it to my kids (14
| y.o. max). Evidently they never used such a thing, but I was
| genuinely surprised they didn't even _know_ what it was. After a
| considerable amount of time one of my daughters hesitated but
| said something like: "Wasn't it like old USB stick thingy?".
| Given they have no USB stick either that's not bad, I guess. Then
| I proceeded to explain that a floppy disk is pictured on Save
| buttons - _you just had to see their faces, it was a moment of
| the big revelation_.
| integricho wrote:
| Since they have never seen floppy disks before, why were you
| surprised that they did not recognize what they were?
| blueflow wrote:
| ... have they seen Save buttons with the Floppy pictured on it,
| either?
| vbezhenar wrote:
| Given that computers play a huge role in our lives, shouldn't
| we taught children some kind of history of computers? It's not
| that big anyway.
| glgrau wrote:
| such a clean documentation, that's actually inspiring
| ZuLuuuuuu wrote:
| Apparently 3M was a serious player back in the day on magnetic
| tapes and floppy diskettes. But today they are not present in a
| similar market (digital storage) at all.
|
| I wonder what was it like to go through that timeframe, as the
| management and the employees, where the floppy disks were
| becoming obsolete. Did they purposefully took the decision to not
| pursue CD, flash memory market? Or was it just a shortsightedness
| of the management where they fell behind and eventually had to
| exit that market?
|
| Of course 3M still managed to be successful and today it is one
| of the big market cap companies...
| trollbridge wrote:
| They spun it off into Imation, as 3M's specialty is coatings
| and chemicals. Storage no longer really uses those things
|
| You could say that 3M doesn't make the things you use every
| day; they make the things you use better.
| hammock wrote:
| We call those "specialty chemicals" and it's smaller volumes
| but much higher profit margins. Evonik (Germany) is another
| example.
|
| Things like- not the asphalt shingle, not the granules on the
| asphalt shingles, but a COATING ON the granule on the asphalt
| shingle that provides weather protection.
|
| Or, not the memory foam mattress, and not the liquid
| precursors that are combined to create the foam in the
| mattress, but an ADDITIVE to the precursors to the foam in
| the mattress which regulates/ensures a consistent size of
| foam bubbles during manufacture.
| chiph wrote:
| 3M was indeed a big player in those markets. I purchased both
| 5.25" and 3.5" 3M floppies and they were good quality and
| reliable.
|
| I expect they left the market because of declining use and the
| entrance of much cheaper foreign manufacturers. I expect they
| didn't enter the flash memory market as they had no existing
| manufacturing base for them to build on. They would have had to
| rebrand another firm's chips and circuit boards.
| sega_sai wrote:
| There is a surprising level of technical details on how the
| diskette works and how it was manufactured. You don't see that
| nowadays.
| _trampeltier wrote:
| No, but back in the early computer days the manuals had been
| like that. Even for a keyboard you got the electric diagrams
| and thing like that.
| amelius wrote:
| I'd be interested to read about the construction of floppy drive
| read/write heads.
| iberator wrote:
| >Refrain from smoking, eating, or drinking when handling a
| diskette to keep from contaminating the media surface.
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(page generated 2025-11-02 23:01 UTC)