So is it "disc" or "disk" or both?

So which is the word that should be used when referring to this type of media?

 

I don't see anything.

 

Disc!

 

Lies! (prays to see a FDS proto magically appear)

 

Which one?

If its a CD/DVD optical media it's DISC. If it's a floppy/n64DD/Hard Drive it's DISK.

 

Bingo. It's a matter of the underlying technology.

 

AFAIK "Disk" comes from diskette, but i'm not really sure of it. At least for floppy disks and 64DDs it would make sense, I think.

 

Thirded

 

So what about new technology. HDDVD and blu-ray I take it those are discs as well?

 

High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc (HD DVD) or Blu-ray disc, yeah. They're all optical disc storage media.

 

So does it really have to do with underlying technology or is it just a matter of shape.

 

It's the good old British spelling of Disc, the Japanese (and Europeans) who made most optical medium called it Disc for that reason but the Americans with their work on magentic media called it with their corruption of the Queens English and called it Disk. Still if we all call it Disc then maybe it will change.

 

In english: disc
In swedish: disk ("skiva" is corret to )
there you go

 

z_killemall is correct, you have Disc's and Diskette's, a CD/DVD is a disc, a floppy/64DD is a disk. I would guess you would differentiate by it having a caddy of some sort or not. A Hard Disk Drive and a Digital Versatile Disc.

 

A disc = optical media
A disk = magnetic media

Plain and simple.

 

What's the etymology of 'disc' anyway? I know 'disk' is a proper term that also refers to the shape in general, I always thought 'disc' was some fancy "modern" moniker.

 

There's lots of underlying etymology; some starting points are here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disk

Of course both terms come from the latin "discus", but the free online dictionary of computing adds this:

disk storage
1. magnetic disk.
2. compact disc.
3. optical disk.
Note: the american spelling, "disk", is normal for most computer disks whereas "compact disc", having come to computers via the audio world, is correctly spelled with a "c", indeed, this spelling is part of the CD standard.
(1995-07-30)

 

Yes, for optical media I've always used Disc, I have always thought that Disk is for floppy disks and magnetic media in general.

 

Just call everythng a Nintendo and your good!

 

LIES! JUST LIES! xD