removable disk

storage A type of magnetic disk, or possibly

magneto-optical disk which is not permanently attached to

the disk drive (not a fixed disk) but which can be taken

out and replaced, allowing many disks to be used in the same

drive.

Floppy disks are removable disks but the term is not

commonly used for them but mostly for hard disks in suitable

cartridges such as those made by Syquest, Iomega and

others.

Removable disks have become popular on microcomputers in the

1990s since they offer a cheap way of expanding disk space,

transporting large amounts of data between computers and

storing back-ups. The concept is not new however, removable

disk packs were common on minicomputers such as the PDP-11

in use in the 1970s except that the drives were the size of

washing machines and the disk packs as big as car wheels.

(1997-06-06)