Floppy disks (pl. Floppies) are either 5.25" or 3.5" portable magnetic storage mediums, hidden inside a thin plastic casing. Floppies were first introduced in 1976 by Shugart Associates. In the early days of modern computing, floppy disks were the only way to put programs on a computer. For example, Windows 1.0 was installed using five 360KB 5.25" floppy disks. Although standard 3.5" floppy disks hold 1.44MB (with one IBM-manufactured type capable of 2.88MB), they have been long-superseded by other storage media.
The format technically lives on, as computer software is able to emulate this medium's parameters. PC and Laptop manufacturers have long since stopped including Floppy Disk Drives with their unit, although the drives themselves continue to be available, both in IDE and USB varieties.