The 5 1/4" floppy disk is protected by an envelope of flexible plastic. The envelope is important as the recording disk within is susceptible to contamination and physical shock. An aperture in the protective envelope allows the |read/write head| to access the |recording media|. Since no shutter is built into the 5 1/4" floppy disk to protect this aperture, the "floppy" usually is stored in another envelope of paper.
