This wiki talks about the etymology, with a lot of examples. Most conform to this rule, but there are exceptions in astrophysics like an accretion disk.

Even in info tech, "hard disk" doesn't really conform to this rule. Like is a hard disk a square hard drive or is it the round thing inside? If it's the square hard drive, that's not thin enough to be a "disk". I'd it's the round thing inside that would be hard disc, but also creates problems for floppy disk because why refer to the housing in one instance but not another.

Sadly, I think the correct answer is that either refers to a thin flat thing, some spellings are preferred for some uses.

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

til disk is actually preferred in American English. from your link:

Usage notes

In most varieties of English, disk is the preferred spelling for magnetic media (hence floppy disk, hard disk, disk drive), whereas disc is preferred for optical media (hence compact disc, digital versatile disc, optical disc). For all other uses, disk is preferred in American English and acceptable in Canadian English, and disc otherwise.

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Find me an American who says his car is equipped with "disk brakes." "Disk" is peculiar to computer magnetic storage media, and "disc" for a round object that probably spins.

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_(mathematics) preferred spelling here

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disk main entry lists disc as a variant spelling while the entry for disc: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disc notes it as a variant spelling of disk

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/disc links to disk

Cambridge online dictionary seems to agree with you more but it's always been the shittiest of them

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Wikipedia tells me that they were initially developed in England and finally patented in Germany, so I'm guessing that's why the British spelling is used in that case.

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[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I can clarify some of the tech stuff.

A "disk" is a concept. It's an object which contains data.

"Hard" disks and "floppy" disks are always referring to the rigidity of the internal storage media. 7", 5.25", and 3.5" floppy disks have the same round magnetic storage material. The only difference with a 3.5" floppy disk is that they put a hard case over the floppy disk.

CD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc are both disks and discs, as their typically handled without a caddy/case. So technically both apply.

SSDs are still disks, just solid state, rather than floppy/hard spinning magnetic media.

Technically flash drives are also solid state disks, but we don't generally conflate the two terms for clarity.

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