It’s been two decades since their heyday, but a wholesale supplier of the iconic 3.5-inch floppy disk used to store data in the 1990s says business is still booming.
Tom Persky runs floppydisk.com, a California-based online disk recycling service that takes in new and used disks before sending them to a loyal customer base—he figures he sells about 500 disks a day.
Who buys discs in an age when more sophisticated storage devices like CD-ROMS, DVDs and USB flash drives have been rendered increasingly obsolete by the Internet and cloud storage? Those in the embroidery, tool and paint industries, and the aerospace industry, especially those involved in aircraft maintenance, Persky says.
“If you built an airplane 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago, you would use a floppy disk to get information in and out of some of the avionics on that airplane,” Persky, 73, said.
In his warehouse, the shelves are filled with green, orange, blue, yellow or black discs shipped from all over the world. On one side is a large magnetic machine with a conveyor belt that erases the information on the discs, while another machine affixes the labels to them.
The warehouse also holds 8-inch discs – an even older storage medium – including one labeled as containing the 1960 US presidential debate John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
Despite being a relic in the modern world, Persky says floppy disks have some redeeming qualities.
“Floppy drives are very reliable, very durable, a very well-understood way of getting information in and out of a machine,” he says. “Plus, they have the added feature of not being too hacky.”
Persky ended up in the floppy disk business after working in software development for a tax company in the 1990s that duplicated its software on disks. He says he fell in love with the business and took it over after it was discontinued.
But he doesn’t expect her to survive another 20 years.
“When I see the ‘save’ icon, I see a floppy disk. But most people just see the ‘save’ icon,” Persky said.
“I’m going to be here as long as people keep wanting these records. But it’s not forever.”
