Mini CD's

[vipers]

I have often wondered why the small CD's for PC's never caught on in the UK. I brought a bit of hardware/software for my PC when I was in Singapore for uploading/downloading phone details from my SIM card.

The programme came on one of those mini CD's, and seems like most things of that nature, ie operating stuff for new printers etc could fit on to these small CD's

All modern PC's have an indentation in the CD tray for them, but is there any reason you dont see them in the UK, I cant even recall seeing the blanks either.

Have a nice day folks

[robbieduncan]

Laptops (and other machines) with slot loading drives can't use them...

[Podie]

robbieduncan said:

Laptops (and other machines) with slot loading drives can't use them...

You can get a holder disk for them... got one sat here in fact!

[Plotloss]

They are VERY expensive comparatively.

[malman]

Plotloss said:

They are VERY expensive comparatively.

Ahhh but with a hole saw you could make them cheap out of normal CDRs

[polus]

No need for them but if you must you can still buy them from svp.co.uk

[vipers]

Thanks for responses lads, so its one of lifes little mystries, similar maybe to why VCD's never made it over here to UK, as far as I know.

Have a nice day people

[_dobbo_]

Worth remembering the capacity is only about 30% (i seem to remember) so it limits how much data you can fit on there.

[Tonsko]

A company I used to work at used to do CD business cards - one of the mini cd's cut to the size of a business card. Could fit about 50 meg of presentation data on them. Never really caught on though.

[vipers]

_dobbo_ said:

Worth remembering the capacity is only about 30% (i seem to remember) so it limits how much data you can fit on there.

Yes it certainly does that right enough, just seems odd that they put this feature into a PC, but doesnt seem to be used. I know we now get business cards which fit in, that was a good idea by someone, mind maybe it was/is used stateside, I dont know. But I was thinking of why didnt they use the mini disc for the likes of little programmes for printers etc. Mind cost wise, probably not much in it.

As I said, the only one I have was the software which came with a SIM card holder, which allows me to download the contents of my sim card, and my sons, and my wifes if need be, to my PC, apdate it on screen, and upload it. I only got it in case I ever lost the phone, then I could simply upload to my new sim card. Got the whole lot in Singapore for about £18 about 5 years ago.

Maybe it was "Just a good idea" at the time.


Have a nice day out there

[zumbruk]

If you have a tower PC, they fall out of the CD tray ...

[polus]

zumbruk said:

If you have a tower PC, they fall out of the CD tray ...

[vipers]

polus said:

zumbruk said: If you have a tower PC, they fall out of the CD tray ...

Only in Australia apparantly


Have a nice day folks

[sjg]

Blanks certainly available, in CD (190ish Mb) and DVD (1.4Gb) varieties:

http://svp.co.uk/products-list.php?bi
http://svp.co.uk/products-list.php?bi

As others say - more expensive than a full-size blank. The commercial duplicating plants (if you're dealing with 500+ discs) either won't do them or charge a hefty premium. And assuming the end user can actually put them in the drive, they usually make a worrying amount of noise in there. You'd have to *really* want to be different to make it at all worthwhile.

[vipers]

Looks they died of natural death for PC's before they even got off the ground, but someone found a use for camcorders etc? Pricy to say the least.

Have a nice day folks

[tog]

The Sandisk CF card I just bought came with the inclded software on a mini CD. The higher cost of production will be saved by the fact it will now fit in the smaller packaging which is all a CF card needs.

[zumbruk]

vipers said:

polus said: zumbruk said: If you have a tower PC, they fall out of the CD tray ... Only in Australia apparantly Have a nice day folks

Oh, yeah. Both the tower PCs I have, the CD drive is mounted vertically ...

[vipers]

zumbruk said:

Both the tower PCs I have, the CD drive is mounted vertically ...

I see what you mean, those super slim models, sorry, my tower case has the CD drives horizontally, or is yours one which can be used either way I wonder, seems a tad stilly to design a tower where the CD's load in a tray vertically? Just curious thats all.