Microdrive

A Microdrive is a miniature hard disk drive (HDD) with a form factor of 1.8 inches. Developed by IBM in the late 1990s, it was one of the smallest hard drives ever produced. Microdrives offered a higher storage capacity than flash memory cards of the time, making them popular for portable devices like digital cameras, MP3 players, and early smartphones.

The technology behind Microdrives was essentially a miniaturized version of traditional hard drives, utilizing spinning platters and read/write heads to store data magnetically. While significantly smaller than their 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch counterparts, they retained the inherent fragility of mechanical components. This made them susceptible to damage from drops or shocks, a limitation that eventually contributed to their decline.

Microdrives typically connected via interfaces like CompactFlash (CF+ or CF/ATA) or PC Card. This allowed them to be easily integrated into existing devices that supported these expansion slots. Over time, flash memory technologies like SD cards and later NAND flash-based SSDs became more affordable and offered superior durability, higher speeds, and lower power consumption.

As solid-state storage matured, the advantages of Microdrives diminished, and they were largely phased out of production by the mid-2000s. While they represent an important step in portable storage technology, they have been superseded by more robust and efficient solid-state solutions.