Convert Floppy Disk (5.25", DD) (floppy (5.25" DD)) to Block (block) instantly.
About these units
Floppy Disk (5.25", DD) (floppy (5.25" DD))
The 5.25-inch DD floppy stored roughly 360 KB (IBM PC) or 1.2 MB (Apple II and others) depending on format. These flexible disks dominated early personal computing in the 1980s. They were physically fragile but offered an affordable way to distribute software, operating systems, and games. The vast majority of early PC software—from Lotus 1-2-3 to original DOS versions—shipped on 5.25" disks. Their shape and texture became symbols of the early PC revolution, despite their low reliability, susceptibility to dust, and limited capacity.
Block (block)
A block is a unit of data storage used by file systems, typically ranging from 512 bytes to 4096 bytes, though advanced systems may use even larger sizes (8 KB, 16 KB, etc.). Blocks form the fundamental allocation unit for disk storage—files occupy blocks on disk, and file systems track which blocks belong to which files. Block size has significant performance implications. Larger blocks improve read/write throughput but may waste space for small files (internal fragmentation). Smaller blocks offer precision but reduce I/O efficiency. Many classic file systems (FAT, ext2), modern ones (ext4, NTFS), and network storage systems (ZFS, Btrfs, distributed file systems) all rely on block-based allocation. Blocks bridge the gap between raw physical storage and abstract file structures.