
How did MS-DOS decide on two seconds to keep the floppy disk cache valid? - mpweiher
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190924-00/?p=102915
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bobx11
Brings back great memories of Sierra’s King’s Quest and swapping out floppies
as you reach different parts of the game. 2 seconds was definitely the minimum
time I would imagine being able to put in a new floppy and not risk crushing
it, but doesn’t that not take into account the ability of the hardware to find
the sectors on the disk that need to be calibrated when you insert it?

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rasz
There is no calibration in floppies (and very old hard drives), track location
is hardcoded in hardware and selected with stepper motor.

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kevin_thibedeau
Hard-sectored 8" and 5.25" floppies did exist.

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coliveira
Two seconds is the time it takes in Formula 1 for mechanics to lift a car,
change four tires, and put the car back in movement. It is difficult to
believe that you cannot swap flop drives in less than that time.

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skykooler
Doing it F1 style, you'd have one person take out the first floppy _while_ a
second person inserts the second floppy.

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zeeZ
You need a third person to push the button that ejects the floppy.

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pmccarren
And you'd need a fourth person to push the floppy in.

