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Fedizen ,

Disc = round

Disk = rectangular

BlackPenguins ,

Well…That almost makes it too simple.

MrScottyTay ,

What about hard disk drives. The “disks” inside them are round

Mercuri ,

The hard disk is made with discs.

fine_sandy_bottom ,

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.

MystikIncarnate ,

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.

pyre ,

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.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Find me an American who says his car is equipped with “disk brakes.” “Disk” is peculiar to computer magnetic storage media, and “disc” for a round object that probably spins.

pyre ,

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_(mathematics) preferred spelling here

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disk main entry lists disc as a variant spelling while the entry for disc: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disc notes it as a variant spelling of disk

www.dictionary.com/browse/disc links to disk

Cambridge online dictionary seems to agree with you more but it’s always been the shittiest of them

RBWells ,

I am not sure, but my oldest child was looking at an English brochure for a trip to France and a asked me "what the heck is a dis-coth-a-cue? Discotheque. A Disco, a dance club. And yes disco-tek is spelled Discotheque in English.

Etterra ,

Not in America it ain’t. Here it’s spelled “Disco is dead.”

Ioughttamow ,

Not true, it just changed

Delphia ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/096b8f93-7ad3-44df-b2fe-b3ebe22dd0fb.gif

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

It’s the same thing. The difference is origin. Disk is American. Disc is British. Usually the only time “disc” is used in the US, is to refer to something round. A CD could go either way, depending on the writer.

thawed_caveman ,

You know “disc” is actually a weird word.

Like say it a few times out loud

D I S C

RedIce25 ,

A disk drive reading disc’s would be a disc disk drive

snugglesthefalse ,

I always thought discs were optical and disks were magnetic

altima_neo ,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

They’re all the same word at their core, evolving from the older Latin word. The difference just comes in how the words were used to describe either a computer related device, hard disk, floppy disk, or a sound carrying device, disc record, compact disc.

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