At the heart of both 3 1/2" and 5 1/4" floppy disks is the recording media. Made of very thin ~Mylar~, the circular recording disk is coated with a rust-like material capable of accepting a magnetic charge. The disk is divided into concentric tracks, each of which is sub-divided into sectors. Each of these sectors is a data address which may be accessed by the |read/write head|. Care must be taken in handling floppy disks as the recording surface is susceptible to damage from a variety of causes. Heat, cold, dust, electromagnetic fields, fingerprints and moisture all can damage the sensitive material.
