Double-sided disk

In computer science, a double-sided disk is a disk of which both sides are used to store data.

Early floppy disks only used one surface for recording. The term "single sided disk" was not common until the introduction of double-sided disks, which offered double the capacity in the same physical size. Initially, the double-sided floppy disks had to be removed and flipped over to access data on the other side, but eventually devices were made that could read both sides without the need to eject the disk.

A commercially-made floppy disk "notcher"

Manufacturers sold both single-sided and double-sided disks with the double-sided disks being typically 50% more expensive than single-sided disks. While the magnetic-coated medium was coated on both sides, the single-sided floppies had a read-write notch on only one side, thus allowing only one side of the disk to be used. When users discovered this, they began buying the less-expensive single-sided disks and "notch" them using scissors, a hole punch, or a specially-designed "notcher" to allow them to write to the reverse side of the disk.

DVDs also are available in single-sided and double-sided formats. When used for movie releases, double-sided DVDs typically have the widescreen (or letterbox) version of the movie on one side, and the pan and scan (sometimes called "fullscreen") version on the opposite side. Some releases place the feature on one side, and the "extras" on the opposite. It is more common, however, for movies to be released on single-sided, dual-layer discs, with the film and extras on the same side, and widescreen and letterbox versions packaged separately. In the case of Oliver!, the film is too long to fit on one dvd (as DVDs can hold up to 120 minutes maximum), so the movie was split and two parts, with the second part on the other side of the same disc. The film was modified to include "End of Side One" after the "Intermission" card was displayed.

When DVDs are used for computer data storage, dual-layer discs are preferred over double-sided ones, to avoid the inconvenience of needing to remove and re-insert discs. However, there is some interest, especially in the development of discs that are both double-sided and dual-layer, effectively quadrupling the amount of information that can be stored as compared to the original, single-sided recordable DVDs. Because of the increased storage available, and the increasing number of computers equipped with drives capable of reading and writing DVDs, many new games are starting to be released on DVDs, and the format is common for personal and business backup needs.