The actual 3-inch magnetic-coated disk occupies less than 50% of the space inside the casing, the rest being used by the complex protection and sealing mechanisms implemented on the disks, which thus are largely responsible for the thickness, length, and relatively high costs of the disks. One example is the more elongated plastic casing, taller than a 3 + 1⁄ 2-inch disk, but less wide and thicker (i.e. Three-inch diskettes bear much similarity to the 3 + 1⁄ 2-inch size, but with some unique features.

Despite this, the format was not a major success. It was also adopted by some other manufacturers/systems such as Sega, the Tatung Einstein, and Timex of Portugal in the FDD and FDD-3000 disk drives. The format was widely used by Amstrad in their CPC and PCW computers, and (after Amstrad took over manufacture of the line) the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3. Hitachi was a manufacturer of 3-inch disk drives, and stated in advertisements, 'It's clear that the 3' floppy will become the new standard.' The 3-inch 'Compact Floppy Disk' or 'CF-2' was an intended rival to Sony's 3.5' floppy system introduced by a consortium of manufacturers led by Matsushita. 3-inch 'Compact Floppy Disk' / 'CF-2' format Īn Amstrad CPC loading a game from floppy disk The drives were compatible with contemporary floppy controllers. The floppies are single sided and can hold up to 149 KB of data when MFM formatted. Versions of the floppy drive was released in minimal quantity for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, and some computers made in East Germany were also equipped with one. The product was released to the market in 1982, but was unsuccessful and only about 2000 floppy drives were produced. In 1980, the product was announced internationally and Jack Tramiel showed interest in using the technology in his Commodore computers, but negotiations fell through. It was sanctioned by the socialist government in the following year however, due to a lack of support by the directors of the factory, the development stalled and working prototypes were only created in 1979.

10.4 Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, and Acorn ArchimedesĪ 3-inch magnetic disk in a hard plastic shell was invented by Marcell Jánosi, who was working at the Hungarian Budapest Radio Technology Factory (BRG), in 1973.

10 Custom formatting types on 3½-inch and 5¼-inch media.

2 3-inch 'Compact Floppy Disk' / 'CF-2' format.

Floppy disk format tool