The Floppy Diet: A History Of Data Storage & Counting Every Byte

When every byte counted

Back in the day, managing data was hard. Bytes were precious, and you had to make tough choices about what to keep and what to delete. Technologies like punch cards, magnetic tape, and early hard drives forced us to live lean—though we didn’t even know it—considering every kilobyte like it was a rare indulgence.

Nowadays, storage and transfer solutions like SFTP To Go are basically an all-you-can-eat buffet—no calorie counting, no portion control, none of that struggle. But before this age of plenty, we endured a pretty awkward evolution up from byte rationing, and that’s what this brief history of data storage is all about.

Floppy disks: starving for space

In the 80s, floppy disks were the gold standard—cutting-edge storage technology. 

Late at night, Depeche Mode playing on the tape deck, and the soft glow of a CRT monitor bathes your room in green—you’re waiting for your floppy drive to finish saving your work. The sound of the drive is hypnotic, and you never know if this will be the time it finally gives up or if you’d make it through one more save before another midnight dial-up session.

Floppies weren’t the most reliable storage medium. While they didn’t constantly fail, they were  prone to issues like bad sectors, physical damage (from dust or magnets), and data corruption over time. Sometimes, drives could also misread or fail to write data properly, and saving files could end in errors or lost data. It was enough to make people anxious, especially during important saves.

This is what you had to contend with through the 70s and 80s, though the general public really only got access to floppies in the 80s. Floppy disks, also known as diskettes, worked using magnetic storage, where data was arranged in concentric tracks on the disk surface. The read/write head spun audibly—moving files—slowly, deliberately, and with the kind of anxiety that only early computing could induce.

• 1971, 8-inch floppy disk: This low-carb meal offered just 80 KB of storage—a meager start but groundbreaking for its time. 
• 1976, 5.25-inch floppy disk: Capacities ranged from 160 KB to 1.2 MB, a significant leap forward, and it became a common standard in personal computers for those who could afford them.
• Early 1980s, 3.5-inch floppy disk: This version became the industry staple by the late 80s, with a capacity of 1.44 MB—Yup, you could fit a handful of files on a 3.5-inch floppy—it was magnificent because we didn’t know any better, but you generally had a bunch of them handy, stashed all over the place. Floppies were like snacks, you needed lot’s of them to get by. Incidentally, while the larger variety were actually wobbly and floppy, the casing on these was solid (with the softer disk inside), leading to general sense of confusion in places where they continued to be called “floppies”.
• 1994, Zip drives: Zip drives, introduced by Iomega, were the big daddy of floppy disks, offering 100MB to 750MB of storage depending on the model. They were as OG 90s as it gets. If they were cars, we would have driven them, if they were clothes, we would have worn them. They used magneto-optical technology and were faster and more reliable than floppies, making them popular for big projects and backups. If a Zip drive failed, it often did so spectacularly, with the infamous click, click, click of doom. 
  

Early hard drives: bulking up, but still hungry

Hard drives were a step up—finally, more space, but still not enough to hoard, at least not back in the 80s and 90s. They were noisy, temperamental, and demanded constant care. The whirring, clicking, and surprisingly frequent grinding noises were constant reminders that your data was not necessarily in good hands, but at least you were “moving with the times”.

Right up until the 2010s, hard drives used a spinning platter with a read/write head that scrambled around to find your data. They revved slower and were way clunkier back in the day, and they lacked the advanced noise-dampening technology that we see in modern drives. The metal housings amplified the mechanical sounds—the sound of the struggle.

Oh, and if you didn’t defrag regularly, files would scatter everywhere, making things slow down and giving you assorted pains. 

• 1980s, the early days: Seagate’s 5MB drive (1980) was groundbreaking but came with a $1,500 price tag—so more for the fancy tech crowd. IBM followed with a 10MB drive in the PC XT (1983), giving users more room, though not for long. By the mid-80s, 20MB to 40MB drives became common, spinning at 3,500 to 5,400 RPM—fast but noisy.

Credit: Christopher Swenson

• Late 1980s: 3.5-inch drives: By the late 80s, 3.5-inch hard drives offered up to 100MB, enough to store games and multimedia files. They were sleeker but still whirred and clicked, reminding you that these drives were very much mechanical.
• 1990s to 2000s, storage boom: In the 90s, hard drives reached 500MB to 1GB, enough for your music collection (kind of) and most of your files. By the 2000s, we hit 100GB to 500GB, with faster 7,200 RPM speeds. Defragging was still routine, but drives were quieter—though we all knew when the microwave was on.
• 2010s and beyond, terabytes & SSDs: The 1TB to 4TB drives of the 2010s made storage feel limitless. Then came SSDs with no moving parts and blazing speeds. NVMe SSDs make older drives feel like dial-up, while spinning hard drives bulked up to 20TB for those who still need massive, budget-friendly storage.
  

Hard drives were an upgrade from floppies, but they needed careful management. Most of us are no strangers to “unfortunately, it’s the harddrive”, lost work, lost hope, and harddrive replacements. You had to keep them neat, tidy, and in good health or your data would get eaten. 

CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays: storage with a side of indigestion

By the mid-90s, just after the era of Zip disks, CDs arrived. It started out great, but it’s a time we’d rather forget. Anyone who lived through that struggle deserves a badge and an extra serving of desert, because CDs were a pleasure and a nightmare. 

CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays felt like big leaps in capacity, but they were far from perfect. Most were read-only, meaning once you burned your data, it was set in stone. Rewritable versions (RW) existed, but they were pricey and cumbersome—you had to erase everything to rewrite anything—but we used them anyway. Under the looming threat of scratches and failed burns, these disks came with a side of pain and anguish.

We’ve since moved on to better solutions, but the memory of trying to gently wipe life back into ruined discs is one we won’t forget anytime soon. 

• 1995, CDs: Compact Discs used optical media, which stored data in tiny grooves that were read by a laser. CDs stored between 650 and 870 MB. They were a hit for music, software, and backups. They were all we had on which to fit our treasured stuff, but CDs were spicy as hell. A single scratch could ruin the entire disc, turning your files, favorite albums, or precious backups into a useless, shiny coaster—and sending you into paroxysms of distress. Burning CDs was an equally nerve-wracking process—if something went wrong halfway through, the disc was done for. 
• Late 1990s, DVDs: DVDs came next, offering up to 4.7GB of space—enough for full-length movies and massive data storage. While more durable than CDs, DVDs still weren’t immune to scratches or playback freeze. They became the go-to for backing up large files and watching movies, but you still handled them carefully.
• Early 2000s, Blu-rays: Blu-rays took storage to the next level with 25GB to 50GB of space—perfect for high-definition movies and hefty backups. More robust than CDs or DVDs, Blu-rays were still fragile enough that one bad scratch could mean the end. They marked the dark pinnacle of optical media before everything started shifting to a more reasonable medium—the cloud. Blu rays never caught on like DVDs did, partly because of poor marketing, but also because we weren’t keen to start collecting a whole new type of disk.

When we look back on CDs, we are traumatized by scratches, see-through bits, and teeth-gnashing skipping sounds. We believe that the sluggish pace of human evolution since the 90s is due, in part at least, to the catastrophic data loss that occurred during the unfortunate reign of scratched CDs, DVDs, and Blu Ray. Some of us can’t even count all the good things we’ve lost. 

What’s more, some of us spent all our time and money building massive, alphabetically ordered libraries of these, full of all the stuff you can imagine… and they are now completely useless.

Flash drives: portion control, finally figured out

By the late 90s and early 2000s, flash drives came to save the day. Small as a stick of gum, they packed a punch. They were portable, reliable, and you no longer had to panic about scratches, magnetic fields, or accidentally folding them in half.

Flash drives use NAND flash memory, a type of non-volatile storage that could retain data without power. They’re faster, more durable, and more reliable. Early USB standards (USB 1.0 and 2.0) supported faster data transfers compared to older serial interfaces. With capacities starting at a few hundred megabytes and rapidly growing into gigabytes, flash drives became the standard for portable storage in the early 2000s.

They have no moving parts, no delicate mechanics, just pure storage simplicity. You plug them in, transfer your files, and go on your merry way. A favorite in the overworld and underworld alike, you can stash all your sensitive files on one and slip it into your pocket without anyone suspecting a thing. You can hide one in your sock or your chocolate bar. It was the first time storage felt...sneaky…and we liked the taste of it.

• 1998: The first 8MB flash drive hit the market—barely enough for a few text files, but it was revolutionary. No more fiddling with floppy disks or waiting for a CD to burn.
• Early 2000s: Capacities of 16MB to 128MB became common. Finally, you had enough space for documents and a few music files. 
• Mid-2000s: 1GB to 4GB drives became standard, making them perfect for carrying movies, music, and work files all at once. 
• 2010s: With 16GB to 64GB drives and USB 3.0, things sped up, and storage grew. You could move large files in seconds and carry entire hard drives’ worth of data in your pocket.
• Today: 1TB flash drives exist, but with cloud storage now so common, they’re not really the bizznizz. Great for when you need something offline or are keen to act nefarious, but you’re probably relying on the cloud for the everyday.

Even though cloud storage has taken the proverbial cake, flash drives are still around, quietly solving problems and serving as trusty backups when the internet fails you. 

The cloud storage feast

When cloud storage hit the table, it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet with endless options. No more worrying about disks or choosing which files to keep—your data was now stored in fault-tolerant data centers that could grow and move with you, always available whenever you needed it—without the delicate handling and maintenance of the past.

Cloud storage didn’t just replace physical drives—it shifted storage off-site to data centers. Your files are spread across multiple servers, often a mix of hard drives and SSDs. If one fails, others take over. So data loss isn’t a concern. What was once only possible with expensive enterprise systems is now available to everyone and their cousin, making data both redundant and accessible from anywhere.

• Late 2000s, the cloud arrives: The introduction of services like Amazon S3 shifted storage from local devices to distributed networks. Data was replicated across multiple servers, ensuring that even if one went down, your files were safe. 
• 2010s, scaling up: Cloud storage didn’t just provide space—it could easily be scaled to meet your needs. Files were split into chunks, distributed across servers, and accessed faster, offering both speed and reliability. Suddenly, you didn’t have to manage storage manually.
• Today, SFTP To Go: With SFTP To Go, cloud storage isn’t just vast—it’s automated and secure. Files are transferred using SFTP, FTPS, and HTTPS,  with S3 storage. Gone are the days of worrying about failed transfers or tedious uploads, and SFTP To Go brings unlimited storage for those who need it.

We’ve come a long way from juggling floppy disks and external drives. SFTP To Go takes cloud storage to its full potential, combining scalability with secure, automated file transfers—effortless, reliable, and built for the way we work today.

With so little to worry about in the storage department, you might even assume we’d arrived at the apex of the storage evolution. It’s the personal chef of storage—serving you exactly what you need, when you need it, without any of the hassle.

Honorable mentions: the forgotten technology treats

It’s impossible to talk about the history of data storage without giving a nod to some of the failed or forgotten technologies that briefly lit up the scene. 

• Magnetic Tape, 1950s - present: This was the grandparent of data storage, primarily used for backups and archiving. While it’s still around today for long-term storage, it’s no longer a mainstream player.
• LaserDisc, 1978: Before CDs, there was LaserDisc—a failed attempt to store data (and video) on an inconceivably massive disc. It was too bulky and impractical, but its optical technology paved the way for future formats.

• SyQuest Drives, 1986 - 1999: Loved by graphic designers, these removable drives offered high capacities for the time, but they were expensive and prone to failure.
• SuperDisk, 1997: A high-capacity version of the floppy disk that offered 120 MB of storage. However, it was outclassed by cheaper, more reliable flash drives.
• MiniDisc, 1992: Mostly known for audio, MiniDiscs also had data storage capabilities, but they never really caught on in the data world.
• Iomega REV Drives, 2004: Iomega’s last attempt at high-capacity removable storage. Despite offering up to 35 GB per disk, it couldn’t compete with the rise of flash and cloud solutions.

These technologies all contributed in their own way to the evolution of data storage, even if they didn’t become household names. Each one represents a stepping stone toward the seamless, abundant storage solutions we enjoy today.

Goodbye byte-counting, hello all-you-can-eat storage buffet

The days of counting bytes are over. We’ve evolved from a time when storage was a precious commodity into the golden age of cloud-based abundance. With solutions like SFTP To Go, we don’t need to ration storage space anymore—it’s limitless, scalable, and secure.

Though we are nostalgic for neon tracksuits, walkmans, and Ice T, the floppy diet days are gone, and we’ve arrived at a point where you can store as much data as you need, without worrying about limits.