November 5, 2025
Punchlines & punched notches
FDD – Diskettes
Floppy fever: retro hacks, geo-block gripes, and hole-punch heroics
TLDR: A deep-dive on floppy disks—from sizes to rare hard-sectored quirks—sparked nostalgia and DIY bragging. Commenters debated hole‑punch hacks, joked about write‑protect notches, and roasted a reported geo‑blocked site error, turning a history lesson into full‑blown retro drama.
A lovingly nerdy page catalogs the many lives of the humble floppy—8-inch giants, 5.25-inch classics, 3.5-inch “micro” icons, and even 3-inch oddballs—plus the weird rules of writing: 8-inch needs the notch covered, 5.25-inch wants it uncovered, and rare hard‑sectored disks sport 10, 16, or even 32 holes. There’s even a DIY fix, the “Virtual Sector Generator,” for when those hard‑sectored unicorns go missing.
But the comment section? Pure retro theater. The loudest cheer comes from a hardware veteran who casually drops the Apple II “flippy” hack: punch a second notch, add a hole, format it four times, clean the head, repeat. Some readers treat it like museum-grade craftsmanship; others clutch pearls at the idea of literally hole‑punching your data. Meanwhile, ZeroConcerns sparks a mini-mutiny, claiming the site throws a server error if you’re outside its “intended service area.” Geo‑fencing a history lesson? The crowd says that’s the most ‘80s corporate move ever.
And then there’s the deadpan energy: turtleyacht strolls in with “Floppy Disk Drive (FDD)” like it’s a mic drop. Fans turn it into a meme for every “we know” moment. The vibe is equal parts nostalgia, DIY bravado, and “why is this page region‑locked” chaos. Also, yes, everyone is arguing which notch rule makes more sense—cover to write or uncover to write. Pick a side.
Key Points
- •Four floppy disk sizes are detailed (8", 5.25", 3.5", 3") with dimensions and common aliases.
- •3.5" and 3" disks are soft-sectored; hard-sectored disks were not used on IBM-compatible systems.
- •Index-hole variations are illustrated via 3M examples; DEC systems used a format type labeled SS-DD-R-128/F.
- •Write-permission behavior differs: 8" disks require the notch covered; 5.25" disks require the write-enable notch uncovered.
- •Hard-sectored 5.25" media are rare; examples include 10- and 16-hole disks, with 16-hole variants used in Honeywell Bull Questar/M; VSG was created to address scarcity.