I heard some people say theyre the same thing, but others are adamant that they have different meanings. Which is it?

  • @fine_sandy_bottom
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    174 months ago

    This is correct in most cases but I don’t think it’s the underlying principle.

    This wiki talks about the etymology, with a lot of examples. Most conform to this rule, but there are exceptions in astrophysics like an accretion disk.

    Even in info tech, “hard disk” doesn’t really conform to this rule. Like is a hard disk a square hard drive or is it the round thing inside? If it’s the square hard drive, that’s not thin enough to be a “disk”. I’d it’s the round thing inside that would be hard disc, but also creates problems for floppy disk because why refer to the housing in one instance but not another.

    Sadly, I think the correct answer is that either refers to a thin flat thing, some spellings are preferred for some uses.

    • @pyre@lemmy.world
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      fedilink
      54 months ago

      til disk is actually preferred in American English. from your link:

      Usage notes

      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.

    • @MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      fedilink
      English
      24 months ago

      I can clarify some of the tech stuff.

      A “disk” is a concept. It’s an object which contains data.

      “Hard” disks and “floppy” disks are always referring to the rigidity of the internal storage media. 7", 5.25", and 3.5" floppy disks have the same round magnetic storage material. The only difference with a 3.5" floppy disk is that they put a hard case over the floppy disk.

      CD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc are both disks and discs, as their typically handled without a caddy/case. So technically both apply.

      SSDs are still disks, just solid state, rather than floppy/hard spinning magnetic media.

      Technically flash drives are also solid state disks, but we don’t generally conflate the two terms for clarity.

    • @Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      fedilink
      04 months ago

      sir, this is lemmy shitpost. Here’s a citation for thinkin too hard, don’t let it happen again.