If you have recently purchased computer related hardware you have likely come accross a small driver CD such as the one shown above.
This seems to be most common with items such as digital cameras and interface cards which often come in packages too small for a
full sized CD. Since the driver and bundled software add up to less than 100MB, the smaller capacity isn't an issue. Since CDs are
read from the inside out and the drive tray has a recessed area just the right size for such media the small size doesn't cause any
problems.
It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that there are CDRs and
DVDRs available in this size.
These mini disks are nominally 3 inches wide but actual measurement shows them to be 3.15 inches wide. I believe this
discrepancy is due to rounding rather than actual size variance. [I've been told they are actually 8 CM]
The mini CDRs can hold 186 megabytes or 21 minutes of audio. The mini DVDRs can hold 1.47GB, more than double the capacity of a
full size CDR!
Of course, the smaller size does have some disadvantages. stick on labels, jewel cases, envelopes and other storage and
labelling options designed for standard sized disks won't works with minis. The industry has addressed this issue by offering
smaller versions of many of the traditional labelling and
storage options.
There are digital cameras and digital camcorders that record directly to such disks, but given the falling price and increasing
capacity of flash memory cards ($20 for a 2GB SD card as of June 2007) I suspect that these will become a memory (no pun intended!)
and that soon the cameras will all use flash cards with the files being transferred to a hard drive or removable media such as DVDr later.
Business card CDRs
A few years ago someone emailed me about a strange looking CDR a company had mailed to him. He even included a high res picture of
it (wish I could find that!). This was what is known as a business card CDR.
These CDRs are similar in size and shape to a business card but a bit thicker.
Business card (aka "credit card") disks come in at least two types, ones with rounded ends and others which are true rectangles.
Some of the early ones had only a 12.5 MB capacity but the current disks hold 50MB. Like mini CD/DVDrs these disks can be recorded
in regular writers and read back by regular drives.
Size comparison of a once state-of-the-art floppy vs the much newer mini CD. The DSHD floppy could hold 1.44 MB, a mini DVDr 1.47 GB, over 1000 times the storage in about the same amount of space!
I personally don't have any experience with business card CDRs but they came out serveral
years ago and are still offered for sale so apparently they do work, despite the odd shape.
It's hard to think of a truly practical application for business card CDRs so they should probably be viewed as a novelty. I don't
know of any home computer users who use them, and I've never seen them in computer stores (only
online). So they will most likely
remain a niche product, used only as a promotional item by a few businesses.
All these mini disks have one thing in common: they offer smaller size and less capacity than their full size counterparts. But what
if you want *MORE* rather than less storage? There are options available, read on!
