Disc vs Disk

[Ketchup]

Does it bother you when someone uses the words disk and disc interchangeably? Do you ever wonder if you have the right word?

Well, fret not. Google has decided that Apple has the top answer on this:

A disc refers to optical media, such as an audio CD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, or DVD-Video disc. Some discs are read-only (ROM), others allow you to burn content (write files) to the disc once (such as a CD-R or DVD-R, unless you do a multisession burn), and some can be erased and rewritten over many times (such as CD-RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM discs).
All discs are removable, meaning when you unmount or eject the disc from your desktop or Finder, it physically comes out of your computer.
Disks
A disk refers to magnetic media, such as a floppy disk, the disk in your computer's hard drive, an external hard drive. Disks are always rewritable unless intentionally locked or write-protected. You can easily partition a disk into several smaller volumes, too.

Disks are usually sealed inside a metal or plastic casing (often, a disk and its enclosing mechanism are collectively known as a "hard drive").

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2300

Do you agree?

 

[Infohawk]

Seems accurate.

Since SSDs are drives this and removable media seems to be dying, this question may start to lose relevance.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

It seems to me to be an unnecessary distinction. It's easy enough to know which type of disk you're talking about based on context--after all we don't feel the need to pronounce these (ostensibly) separate words differently during oral communication.

Of course, one could say the same thing about the difference between "there" and "their." I always try to get that one right. Maybe the more interesting question is what a person's spelling pet peeves say about them.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Accurate except that Disk also refers to SSDs, USB flash sticks, and in-memory RAM disks.

 

[TY-1]

The trick I always use to remember the difference is that a disc has a similar shape and flight profile of a discus. While a disk is often rectangular like my desk. 😛

 

[VirtualLarry]

"disk" is short for "diskette", is it not?

 

[Torn Mind]

Must research the etymology of the terms first, because I don't think disc or disk is exactly a new word.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=disk

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=disc


:hmm:

So, is it a British vs American English thing that has actually become divergent in meaning?

 

[hemi79]

I agree with Larry, a disk was short for diskette. In middle school we used diskettes and we called them disk by the time the year was over. Of course their is probably more to it. (just playing, THERE is what i meant)

I don't think i write or say "disk" and picture or reference a CD per say. I cleaned out a storage some time back and found a huge pile of disks and it just felt weird. I didn't know what to do with them. Any way i get the established difference an could agree. But IMO USB's are disks. 🙂

 

[Atreidin]

Wikipedia to the rescue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc

 

[mfenn]

Disc as optical media and disk as magnetic media is how I've always used them. It seems like a fine distinction to me. Not to mention it that is how they are used in the Official Names (TM) of the technologies.