{"id":484234,"date":"2025-06-01T08:11:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T15:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/?p=484234"},"modified":"2025-06-01T08:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T15:11:26","slug":"apple-disk-ii-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/apple-history\/apple-disk-ii-launch","title":{"rendered":"Today in Apple history: Apple II gets its first disk drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"June June 1, 1978:<\/strong> Apple launches the Disk II floppy drive, one of the company’s most important peripherals ever.<\/p>\n

The best floppy drive available at the time, Disk II solves the Apple II<\/a> computer’s most glaring weakness — a lack of storage. It also helps establish Apple’s flair for handsome profit margins.<\/p>\n

Apple Disk II launch<\/h2>\n

About six months after the Apple II launch<\/a> in June 1977, the need for a better storage option became obvious. In today’s world of cloud storage and 1-terabyte iPhones, it\u2019s strange to consider a time when storage space was severely scarce on Apple machines. That certainly proved the case in 1977, however. At that time, the only way for users to store and access programs and data was using unfathomably slow cassette tapes.<\/p>\n

The floppy disk provided a new solution. IBM invented the 8-inch floppy in the early 1970s. Shugart Associates later shrank it to 5 1\/4 inches, a size more appropriate for personal computers. The 5 1\/4-inch floppy disk debuted in 1976, making it cutting-edge technology when it arrived on the Apple II.<\/p>\n

An impressive feat of engineering<\/h3>\n

Apple’s first investor (and second CEO) Mike Markkula<\/a> recommended that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak<\/a> build a disk drive for the Apple II. His rationale? Providing an easier way to store and access programs would make the computer far more compelling to potential customers. At the time, many people remained unsure why they needed a computer in their home.<\/p>\n

As Wozniak recalled in his autobiography, iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0he wanted to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, he was told that only Apple marketing people were attending.<\/p>\n

“I asked Mike, if I finished the disk drive in time, could I go to Vegas for the show?” Woz recalled. Markkula agreed.<\/p>\n

Steve Wozniak and Randy Wiggington go into overdrive<\/h3>\n

This interchange took place in late 1977, leaving Woz with an incredibly tight, two-week window to get a prototype up and running. To help develop the necessary software to get the Disk II working, Woz drafted Randy Wiggington, one of Apple’s very first employees. (Wiggington met Wozniak during the Homebrew Computer Club days<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Subsisting on takeout meals from McDonald’s, the pair got the first Disk II working over the Christmas break<\/a>. They worked every day with the exception of December 25, which Wiggington took off. (Wozniak didn\u2019t.)<\/p>\n

Woz later described the Apple floppy drive as the finest piece of engineering he ever engaged in. Wiggington enjoyed the challenge, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was so awesome, so much fun,\u201d Wiggington told me when I interviewed him for my book The Apple Revolution<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about money or fame, it was a nerdy accomplishment that we were proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

They got to Las Vegas and, after a last-minute hiccup in which they accidentally wiped the demo disk while attempting to create a backup, the CES debut worked perfectly.<\/p>\n