Magnetic Floppy Disks

2" LT-1 Disk

The LT-1 was a rare 2-inch floppy disk developed for portable computers. It offered around 720–800 KB of storage in a disk only slightly larger than a postage stamp and was used, for example, in the Zenith Minisport laptop.

2" PD1 Digital Disk

Sony's PD-1, also known as DataDisk, was a 2-inch digital floppy introduced in 1987 for Sony's portable word processors. Although the disk itself was tiny, it could store around 1 MB of data — enough for dozens of text documents.

2" Iomega Clik! / PocketZip

Iomega Clik!, later renamed PocketZip, was one of the smallest removable magnetic disks ever made. Introduced around 1999, its tiny 2-inch cartridge stored 40 MB and was designed mainly for portable devices such as laptops and digital cameras.

2.5" Olivetti Minidisk

Olivetti developed this unusual 2.5-inch floppy for its early P6040 computer. With only a few kilobytes of capacity, it was tiny by today's standards but represented an interesting early attempt to make computer storage smaller and more portable.

2.5" Olympia Micro Disk

The Olympia Micro Disk was a proprietary small-format floppy used in Olympia electronic typewriters and computer systems. Its capacity was only around 8 KB, making it a fascinating reminder of how little storage was needed for text documents in the early days of personal computing.

2.5" Brother Micro Disk

Brother used its own 2.5-inch Micro Disk format in several electronic typewriters and word-processing systems. The disk was designed primarily for storing text documents. Single-sided and double-sided versions existed.

2.5" Pocket Disk

Sharp developed the Pocket Disk for its portable computers and electronic devices. The 2.5-inch disk could store about 128 KB and was designed to be carried together with a small portable disk drive.

2.6" Micro Disk

The 2.6-inch Micro Disk was used by several manufacturers, including Triumph-Adler and Casio, mainly in electronic typewriters and word processors. Some versions stored only 8 KB, and the unusual disks are now extremely rare.

2.8" Quick Disk / Data Disk

The Quick Disk was a small floppy format developed by Mitsumi and used by various computers, word processors and musical instruments. Its simple design also made it popular in synthesizers and samplers from companies such as Akai, Korg and Roland.

2.8" Nintendo Famicom Disk

Nintendo's Disk System used small 2.8-inch magnetic disks instead of conventional game cartridges. Introduced in Japan in 1986, the system allowed games to be distributed on rewritable media and even enabled players to save their progress.

3" MCD Cassette

The MCD Cassette was an unusual small floppy format developed in Hungary in year 1973 and used in specialised computer systems and word processors. Its 3-inch cartridge contained a magnetic disk with a capacity of around 150 KB and it was significantly smaller that 8-inch floppy disk commontly used those days.

3" Compact Floppy Disk

The 3-inch Compact Floppy was developed by Hitachi, Matsushita and Maxell as an alternative to larger floppy formats. It became particularly associated with Amstrad computers and was available with capacities of 360 KB and 720 KB.

3.5" Microfloppy

The 3.5-inch Microfloppy became the most successful small floppy disk format and eventually replaced the larger 5.25-inch disk in most computers. Its rigid plastic shell and sliding metal shutter made it much more convenient and durable than earlier floppy disks.

3.5" Floptical

Floptical disks combined magnetic recording with optical tracking. A laser read pre-recorded servo information to position the magnetic head extremely accurately, allowing a 3.5-inch disk to store about 21 MB — far more than a conventional floppy of the same size.

3.5" UHD

The UHD144, also known as the Caleb IT Disk, was another attempt to push the familiar 3.5-inch floppy design into the high-capacity era. It could store around 144 MB, but appeared at a time when CD-R and other removable storage technologies were already becoming popular.

3.5" HiFD

Sony and Fuji developed HiFD as a high-capacity successor to the conventional floppy disk. The 3.5-inch disk could store 200 MB while retaining compatibility with standard floppy disks, but the format arrived too late to become widely successful.

3.5" Microfloppy with pinch mechanism

Some of the earliest 3.5-inch floppy disks had a manual shutter mechanism operated by pinching the corner of the disk. Later versions introduced the familiar automatic metal shutter, making this small detail a curious piece of floppy-disk history.

3.5" Iomega ZIP

The ZIP disk was one of the most successful attempts to replace the standard floppy disk. Iomega's original ZIP disk stored 100 MB — almost 70 times more than a standard 1.44 MB floppy — and later versions increased the capacity to 250 and 750 MB.

3.5" Iomega U250

The ZIP U250 was a less common variant of Iomega's 250 MB ZIP disk introduced around 2001. Its redesigned cartridge had a distinctive rounded shape and used a different media construction intended to improve durability and reliability.

3.5" Super Disk

SuperDisk, also known as LS-120, tried to combine high capacity with compatibility. It could store 120 MB while also reading and writing conventional 3.5-inch floppy disks, but CD-R and CD-RW soon became much more attractive alternatives.

3.5" Nintendo 64 DD Disk

The Nintendo 64DD used a proprietary 64.45 MB magnetic disk that fitted into an add-on drive underneath the Nintendo 64 console. Unlike ordinary game cartridges, part of the disk could be rewritten, allowing games to store additional data and user-created content.

5,25" HyperFlex (24 MB version)

HyperFlex was a proprietary high-capacity floppy system using a flexible disk enclosed in a rigid cartridge. The 24 MB version offered many times the capacity of a normal 5.25-inch floppy, but the format remained a specialised and short-lived solution.

5.25" Floppy Disk

The 5.25-inch floppy was one of the defining storage media of the early personal-computer era. Introduced in the 1970s, it was large, flexible and relatively fragile compared with later 3.5-inch disks, but for many years it was the standard way to distribute software and store personal data.

5.25" Bernoulli Box

Iomega's Bernoulli Box used a flexible magnetic disk enclosed in a protective cartridge. When spinning, the disk was pulled towards the read/write head by the Bernoulli effect, providing an early approach to reducing the risk of head crashes.

8" Bernoulli Box

The original Bernoulli Box used huge 8-inch removable disks and was introduced in 1982. Early cartridges offered around 10 MB of storage — an impressive capacity at the time — while later generations moved to the smaller 5.25-inch format.

8" Floppy Disk

The 8-inch floppy was one of the earliest widely used floppy-disk formats. Introduced in the 1970s, these large flexible disks were originally developed for mainframe and minicomputer systems and later became an important medium for early personal and office computers.

8" Vydec Floppy Disk

Vydec used specially formatted 8-inch floppy disks in its early word-processing systems. These disks were often hard-sectored, with physical holes used to define the disk's sectors, making them different from the soft-sectored floppies that later became common.

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