Microdrive

First developed by IBM in 1999, the Microdrive when first released was the smallest hard disk drive in the world and contained 170MB. To the right is an example of a disassembled 4GB Microdrive from an iPod mini. Today, this type of drive is made by various different manufacturers but because this name is Trademarked by Hitachi may be known by different names such as 1-inch hard drives. These drives range in sizes from 170MB to 8GB and although still used today in various devices are becoming widely replaced by CompactFlash.

Also see: CompactFlash, Hard disk drive definitions, Hard drive