Floppy disk

A floppy disk is a human portable data storage device, using a magnetized disc inside of a plastic casing to store data in magnetic form. In the case of human computers, this is usually in binary code. How exquisitely crude of them.

Floppy disks come in several forms, specified by width:


 * 3.5 inches; these flop little, having a fairly rigid case.
 * 5 ¼ inches, encased in flexible plastic, as seen at right.
 * 8 inches, from the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
 * 10 feet across, used by the Autobots in 2011 or so.

Marvel The Transformers comics
When Optimus Prime "lost" his simulated duel with Megatron in the computer game Multi-World, he accepted the agreed-upon fate... his real body was destroyed. However, the human Ethan Zachary had copied Prime's entire personality and memories onto a single 5¼″ floppy disk. (No, really.) Later, Goldbug acquired the disk from Ethan  and took it to Nebulos in the hopes that the planet that birthed the Headmasters and Targetmasters could build a body to house Optimus Prime's personality. The disk interfaced easily with the alien technology (just go with us on this, all right?), and Powermaster Optimus Prime was born.

''Following Optimus Prime's return to Earth, Scorponok used a stolen copy of the floppy disk containing Optimus's personality in combination with the stolen A.B.C. to devise a smart bomb to target and destroy Optimus Prime. Long story short, Getaway recovered the disk and the plan failed.''

The Transformers cartoon
When the Decepticons raided Doctor Alcazar's antimatter laboratory, he sent the formula for the powerful substance to Chip Chase, who memorized it and destroyed the only known copy by tearing the floppy disk in half with his bare hands.

The Headmasters cartoon
What appeared to be a gigantic floppy disk was used by Fortress Maximus to store data on the Master Sword when he was forced to hand the data over to the Decepticons.

2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Doctor Onishi entrusted a floppy disk full of data to Doctor Yoshimoto for safekeeping, to later be given to Koji Onishi. Unfortunately the Predacons got wind of it, and Gas Skunk, Slapper and Dark Scream stole it from Yoshimoto. What they didn't know was that the disk was actually full of information about steam trains, which Megatron assumed were secret weapons, and had his minions pointlessly attack "Grandpa".

When Wedge was captured by the Predacons, Heavy Load offered to do a swap for a disk which he claimed was full of data on the Global Space Bridge. The trade went south when a penguin grabbed the disk, and everyone chased it around Antarctica until Ro-Tor snatched it back. Unfortunately for both the Decepticons and the Predacons, it turned out the disk contained a map of the local sewer system.