I heard some people say theyre the same thing, but others are adamant that they have different meanings. Which is it?
There’s been some movement over time but in general disk was used for pc because you had Hard Disk Drives. Then their counterpart the floppy diskette (disks).
Disc as a term was used for media like compact discs and subsequently digital video discs, etc. and then pc components allowing them to be read and then written to did exist for PC’s and, as such, had the disc moniker. But that’s because they were already “discs” branding wise.
USB thumb drives, being created as portable removable media for pc’s were a kind of solid state disk and so they use the k. Even NVME, being primarily storage for computing devices, can also colloquially be called “disks” but more and more people just refer to them as drives and I suspect those who refer to them as disks may do so out of older computer hardware habits and that utilities (fdisk, df, etc)call any such media a “disk”.
Everything on the left is a drive, but only half of them are disks:
Hard Disk Drive
USB pen drive
Floppy Disk Drive
Solid State Drive
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disk
In most varieties of English, disk is the preferred spelling for magnetic media (hence floppy disk, hard disk, disk drive), whereas disc is preferred for optical media (hence compact disc, digital versatile disc, optical disc). For all other uses, disk is preferred in American English and acceptable in Canadian English, and disc otherwise.
Less commonly, disc is used for magnetic media (as in floppy disc and discette; similarly, disk is sometimes used for optical media, as in compact disk and optical disk.
The reason for this is actually pretty interesting though. Historically it was just a US/UK English difference, but it evolved into both being used because one of the first big manufacturers of optical discs, Philips, called them discs, while the US-based IBM spelled their magnetic disks with a K.
Disk is short for diskette
And disc is short for discotheque.
^not really^
Perhaps it’s just a leftover marketing motif?
"The spelling disk and disc are used interchangeably except where trademarks preclude one usage, e.g., the Compact Disc logo. The choice of a particular form is frequently historical, as in IBM’s usage of the disk form beginning in 1956 with the “IBM 350 disk storage unit”. "
Disck
Disk but with a soft k, like in kif
I’ve been known to use them interchangeably.
It’s British English (disc) vs American English (disk).
Has nothing to do with country. Discs are round objects. In the computing sense that’s cds, dvds, etc.
Disks are floppy disks(diskette, “discette” never existed as a word) , hard drive disks… etc. There is a difference and it has nothing to do with what land you’re in. Disk in usa never meant a circular object like a Frisbee (discus for example)
But the floppy diskette and the “hard disks” did in fact have circular discs inside that spin around.
I suspect that the word diskette was created as an analog to tape “cassette”.
This feels like it makes sense.
“-Ette” is a common diminutive used to imply that something is a smaller version of something else. Like many things, we nicked it from the French.
Cigarette, a little cigar. Featurette, a short feature. Novelette, a miniature novel. Etc.
So, diskette, a little disk. Quite separate from the ones spinning in your company’s mainframe at the time. Those ones were two feet in diameter locked in a steel cabinet that weighs two tons. This one can fit in your shirt pocket. You get the idea.
Considering “cassette” is the diminutive form of “casse” which meant “case,” this seems right. This meant that the magnetic tape was held in a “diminutive case” which was arguably true when compared to records and 8-tracks.
So, diskettes also being magnetic, also being encased in something, and also being the diminutive form of a larger thing tracks.
By george, I think they’ve got it.
I think they got that from Wikipedia
Jerboa won’t let me post a screenshot right now but here’s a link
The fact that there’s even a document on Apple.com is mind blowing
That’s crazy. I like their interpretation though. A disc is ejectable but a disk isn’t.
i assure you that floppy disks are ejectable.
It’s from diskette. Not about what country the spelling is from.
Prepare to have your mind blown.
Portable Hard Disc Drive https://pro.sony/en_GB/products/portable-storage/psz-hb-b-series
I don’t doubt the diskette comment since it’s an American invention. But sometimes this nuance shows up.
Disc and disk are varient spellings of the same word that pre-exist computing. Disc is more common in British English, Disk more common in American English. But yeah since computing came along disk has also been used more for magnetic media (hard disk) while disc has been used more for optical media (compact disc). I wouldn’t be surprised if this only happened because of how the CD was marketed and branded as a “compact disc” as a trademark while hard disks and floppy disks etc were more generic terms.
In modern parlance, this has been my working understanding too:
But yeah since computing came along disk has also been used more for magnetic media (hard disk) while disc has been used more for optical media (compact disc).
Optical:
- compact disc
- laser disc
Magnetic:
- 3.5" diskette
- 800GB ard disk drive
…and just to point out there is some disagreement
Magneto-Optical , such as Sony MiniDisc, is sometimes referred to Disc for its optical properties and sometimes as a MO Disk for its magnetic properties.
A disk is something that contains information. It stands for Dense Inside Stored Knowledge
Dense Information Storage Circle
Its a disk when its magnetic, disc when optical.
The way to remember it is that its disk because its magnetik.
Where do magento-optical fit?
disck
Disque
No a disc is round
ur a disc
What if it’s optikal?
I cannot stress enough how efficiently you ruined my ability to use the memory trick.
Just remember the c in disc is shaped like a magnet.
Now you’ve gone and made things worse.
Is a VHS tape a disk then?
No, that’s a tape. It has to be dis(c/k) shaped to be a disk.
the tape spooled up on the reel inside a VHS looks like a thi(c/k) dis(c/k)
more disk shaped than flash memory.
thic(k/c)
Linear disk 🤓
Including fridge magnets?
Is a plate optical or magnetic?
Depends on how you store data on it. If you write with a pen its optical.
I usually store food on them
Disc is short for discus.
Disk is short for diskette, the square things some discs are kept in.
Thats how I interpret it as well.
Isn’t a diskette just a small version of a disk? Much like kitchenette to kitchen
I don’t think so https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk
To quote from your source:
8-inch floppy disk, inserted in drive, (3½-inch floppy diskette, in front, shown for scale)
Get outta here with your actual helpful answer
Same word. Different dialects.
Disque
Diskette
Petit Disk
Disq
Disque?
Way too cumbersome
Disqueue, then.
Dischqueue
Disque*
