Floptical
Floptical drives combine magnetical and optical technologies. Flopticals were 21 megabyte 3.5" magnetic diskettes using optical tracks to increase the tracking precision of the magnetic head, from the usual 135 tracks per inch to 15,000 tracks per inch. No laser or heating was involved; a simple infrared LED was used to follow the optical tracks. The magnetic head touched the recording surface. The drives could also read and write traditional 3.5" diskettes, although not the 2.88 megabyte variety. Flopticals were manufactured by Insite Peripherals, a company founded by Jim Shugart.
The term comes from a combination of floppy, as in floppy disk, and optical.
Compare to Magneto-optical drive
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