The floppy drive is a piece of computer hardware that reads and writes data to a small disk. The most common type is the 3.5-inch drive, followed by the 5.25-inch drive, among other sizes.

The floppy disk was the primary method of transferring data between computers and backing up files externally from the late 1900s to the early 2000s. The floppy disk drive is now largely obsolete.

These older storage devices have been replaced by other portable devices and built-in computer hardware. This is not only because they are more common and therefore compatible with other devices, but also because they can do more and store much more data.

The optical drive, used for DVDs, CDs, and Blu-rays, is a common piece of hardware that replaced the floppy drive, although it too is increasingly moving to solid-state technology.