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Reference guide

Storage media field guide: what is this disc, tape or card, and how do I get it off?

Decades of discs, tapes, floppies and memory cards end up in the same drawer. This guide identifies each one by sight and by its real size, says what can still read it, how it fails, and what to do before it does. 37 formats, each drawn to scale beside a photo of the real thing.

By John Walsh-Green & the friendly AI team at Digital Greenhouse 14 October 2026 Reference

CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray

They all look alike from the label side. Turn the disc over: the colour of the data side, and whether you can see a written band, tells you whether it was pressed in a factory or burned at home — and burned discs are the ones failing now.

Each outline is drawn to scale beside a bank card (85.6 × 54 mm), so you can hold the real thing up against one.

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The silver data side of a pressed CD, showing the rainbow sheen — Photo: liamz2r, Public domain

CD (pressed)

Audio CD, CD-ROM, CD-DA, Compact Disc

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this — Audio CDs to verified lossless files, data CDs copied off, and a read attempt on scratched ones.

Years: 1982 – today
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 74 or 80 minutes of audio; 650 or 700 MB of data
Reads it today: Any CD or DVD drive. A USB DVD drive costs about $30–$50 and plugs into any computer.
How it fails: Pressed discs are tough. Deep scratches on the label side are worse than on the shiny side, because the data sits just under the label. Rare “disc rot” shows as pinholes when held to the light.
Tell it apart: The silver data side is the same colour all over. Commercial albums and software are pressed; anything you burned yourself is a CD-R.

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The coloured dye side of a recordable CD, with the edge of the written area visible — Photo: Cathode Ray Dude, CC BY 3.0 (cropped)

CD-R

Recordable CD, burned CD, CD-ROM blank

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this — Old backups, photo discs and music burns read off before they fail, with an honest answer if one can’t be saved.

Years: 1990s – today (common from about 1997)
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 650 or 700 MB; 74 or 80 minutes of audio
Reads it today: Any CD or DVD drive. Some 1990s CD players won’t play burned audio CDs.
How it fails: The data lives in a layer of dye that fades with heat and light. Discs burned in the late 1990s and 2000s are failing now, often starting at the outer edge. Cheap brands go first.
Tell it apart: The data side is coloured — gold, green, blue or purple — and you can see a darker band where it has been written.

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CD-RW

Rewritable CD

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this

Years: 1997 – 2010s
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 650 or 700 MB
Reads it today: A CD or DVD drive. Many CD players and older drives can’t read them, because they reflect much less light than a CD-R.
How it fails: Can be erased by accident, and the recording layer weakens with age and repeated rewriting.
Tell it apart: A dull grey-silver data side, noticeably darker than a pressed CD, and usually labelled RW.

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The data side of a pressed DVD — Photo: ocrho, Public domain

DVD (pressed)

DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-5, DVD-9

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this

Years: 1996 – today (Australia from about 1999)
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 4.7 GB single layer, 8.5 GB dual layer (about 2 to 4 hours of film)
Reads it today: Any DVD drive or player. Australian DVDs are region 4 and PAL, which matters for players but not for copying the files.
How it fails: Two 0.6 mm halves are glued together; if the glue fails, or the disc is flexed, the layers separate and the disc becomes unreadable in patches.
Tell it apart: Same size as a CD. Commercial films and software are pressed; anything off a home recorder is a DVD±R.

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DVD±R

DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, burned DVD

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this — Finalised discs. For discs from a DVD recorder or camcorder that were never finalised, ask us first.

Years: Late 1990s – today
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 4.7 GB, or 8.5 GB dual layer (DL)
Reads it today: Any DVD drive, if the disc was finalised. A disc from a DVD recorder or camcorder that was never finalised will only play in the machine that made it.
How it fails: The same fading-dye problem as CD-R. Unfinalised discs are the other big problem: the recording is there, but other machines can’t find it.
Tell it apart: Coloured purple, blue or silver-grey on the data side with a written band. “DVD-R” and “DVD+R” are rival formats that almost every drive since the mid-2000s reads.

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DVD±RW

DVD-RW, DVD+RW, rewritable DVD

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this

Years: Early 2000s – 2010s
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 4.7 GB
Reads it today: A DVD drive. Common in DVD recorders, where they were reused for TV recording.
How it fails: Can be erased or recorded over by accident. Also suffers the finalising problem of DVD±R.
Tell it apart: Darker grey data side, labelled RW.

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DVD-RAM

DVD-RAM cartridge, Type 1, Type 2

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1998 – 2010s
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 2.6 or 4.7 GB per side (5.2 or 9.4 GB double sided)
Reads it today: Only a drive that lists DVD-RAM support (many later “Super Multi” burners do). Often used in Panasonic DVD recorders and some camcorders.
How it fails: Holds up better than DVD±R. The cartridge versions can’t go in an ordinary tray; some cartridges let the disc be removed, some don’t.
Tell it apart: A grid of small rectangles visible on the data side, and often a plastic cartridge.

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A standard 12 cm DVD beside a small 8 cm camcorder DVD — Photo: diskdepot.co.uk, CC BY-SA 3.0

8 cm DVD

Mini DVD, camcorder DVD

Ask us — Not on our service list yet. Finalised ones read in an ordinary tray drive, so ask us — and tell us which camcorder made them, if you know.

Years: 2000 – about 2010
Size: 80 mm across
Holds: 1.4 GB single layer (about 30 minutes at standard quality), 2.6 GB dual layer
Reads it today: Any tray-loading DVD drive (the tray has a small recess for 8 cm discs), once finalised in the camcorder. Never put one in a slot-loading drive: it can jam inside.
How it fails: Fading dye, as for DVD±R, and very often never finalised.
Tell it apart: A small 8 cm disc, usually from a Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic or Canon DVD camcorder.

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Blu-ray

BD, BD-R, BD-RE, BDXL

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this

Years: 2006 – today
Size: 120 mm across
Holds: 25 GB single layer, 50 GB dual layer, 100 or 128 GB BDXL
Reads it today: A Blu-ray drive or player. DVD drives can’t read it. Australian discs are region B.
How it fails: The data sits under a hard coat right at the surface, so pressed Blu-rays are scratch-resistant. Most recordable BD-R (the “HTL” type) uses an inorganic layer that holds up better than DVD±R dye; budget “LTH” discs use dye.
Tell it apart: Same size as a CD; the data side is often darker, sometimes with a blue-grey or brown tint, and the case is usually blue.

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LaserDisc

LD, LaserVision, DiscoVision

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1978 – 2000s (players made until 2009)
Size: 300 mm across
Holds: About 60 minutes per side (CLV), or 30–36 minutes per side (CAV); analogue video
Reads it today: Only a LaserDisc player, now second-hand. Some later players also play CDs.
How it fails: “Laser rot”: the aluminium layer corrodes, showing as speckles, snow or crackle on playback. It can’t be fixed.
Tell it apart: The size of a vinyl LP, but silver and mirror-like, usually on both sides.

Video tapes

Home video came on a handful of cassette sizes. The full-size ones played in the lounge-room VCR; the small ones came out of camcorders and usually need that camcorder, or one like it, to play them again.

Each outline is drawn to scale beside a bank card (85.6 × 54 mm), so you can hold the real thing up against one.

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A full-size VHS videocassette seen from the front — Photo: LoMit, CC BY-SA 4.0

VHS

Video Home System, E-180, E-240

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this — Standard full-size VHS, transferred the cheap and cheerful way, with two complete sample files on the service page.

Years: 1976 – 2000s (in Australian shops from the late 1970s)
Size: 187 × 103 × 25 mm
Holds: Up to 3 or 4 hours on standard play (E-180, E-240 in Australia); double that on long play
Reads it today: A VHS video recorder (VCR), now only second-hand: the last ones were made in 2016. A USB capture stick turns one into a transfer rig.
How it fails: Most tapes are now 25 to 45 years old, and age shows. Mould (white fuzz on the tape edge), stretched or crinkled tape, and the magnetic signal fading. A mouldy tape can contaminate the VCR heads.
Tell it apart: The full-size black cassette. If the label says S-VHS or the case has an extra hole on the bottom, see S-VHS.

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The underside of VHS cassettes, showing the identification holes — Photo: SuavekS, CC BY-SA 4.0

S-VHS

Super VHS, S-VHS ET

Ask us — Not yet: an S-VHS deck is the next step up on our list.

Years: 1987 – 2000s
Size: 187 × 103 × 25 mm
Holds: As VHS
Reads it today: An S-VHS VCR for full quality. Many later VHS machines have “S-VHS quasi playback” (SQPB), which plays it at ordinary VHS sharpness.
How it fails: As VHS.
Tell it apart: Looks like a VHS tape, labelled S-VHS, with an identification hole on the underside.

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VHS-C

Compact VHS, EC-30, EC-45, EC-60

Ask us — Not part of the service today. Tell us anyway: requests decide what we add.

Years: 1982 – 2000s
Size: ≈ 92 × 59 × 23 mm
Holds: 30 to 60 minutes on standard play
Reads it today: A VHS-C camcorder, or an ordinary VHS VCR with a VHS-C adapter cassette (most are battery-powered), which the small tape slots into.
How it fails: As VHS. Adapters wear out and can damage a tape; test one with a tape you don’t care about.
Tell it apart: About half the length of a VHS tape, with the same tape inside. Not to be confused with Video8, which uses narrower 8 mm tape.

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Betamax

Beta, L-500, L-750

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1975 – 2002 (Sony stopped making the tapes in 2016)
Size: 156 × 96 × 25 mm
Holds: About 2 hours 10 minutes (L-500) to 3 hours 35 minutes (L-830) in Australia
Reads it today: Only a Betamax VCR, now rare and usually needing a service.
How it fails: As VHS, but players are now scarcer than the tapes.
Tell it apart: Smaller than VHS, with a flip-up lid along the front edge; often labelled L-500, L-750 or L-830.

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A TDK Hi8 MP90 video cassette — Photo: Retired electrician, CC0

Video8, Hi8 & Digital8

8mm video, Hi8, D8, P5-90, P6-60

Ask us — Not part of the service today. Tell us anyway: requests decide what we add.

Years: 1985 – 2000s (Hi8 from 1989, Digital8 from 1999)
Size: 95 × 62.5 × 15 mm
Holds: Typically 60 or 90 minutes; Digital8 records 60 minutes on a 90-minute Hi8 tape
Reads it today: A camcorder of the same type. Most Digital8 camcorders (not all: check the model) also play Video8 and Hi8 tapes and send them out over FireWire.
How it fails: Thin tape that drops out (white flecks and lines) as it ages, and camcorder mechanisms that chew tapes. Players are the scarce part.
Tell it apart: About the size of an audio cassette but thicker, labelled 8mm, Hi8 or Digital8. Digital8 is a recording format, not a different tape: it uses Hi8 cassettes.

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MiniDV

DV, HDV, DVC

Ask us — Not part of the service today. Tell us anyway: requests decide what we add.

Years: 1995 – about 2012 (HDV from 2003)
Size: 66 × 48 × 12.2 mm
Holds: 60 minutes standard play, 90 minutes long play (80-minute tapes also exist); about 13 GB per hour as DV files
Reads it today: A MiniDV camcorder or deck with a FireWire port, and a computer that still has FireWire (or an adapter chain to Thunderbolt). The transfer is digital, so it’s an exact copy.
How it fails: Very thin tape: dropouts show as blocky squares rather than snow. Long-play recordings are the hardest to read back.
Tell it apart: A small tape, about matchbox size. If the label or the camcorder says HDV, it may be high definition, which needs an HDV camcorder to play.

Audio tapes & MiniDisc

From mixtapes to dictation, and the digital formats that tried to replace the cassette.

Each outline is drawn to scale beside a bank card (85.6 × 54 mm), so you can hold the real thing up against one.

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Audio cassette

Compact Cassette, C60, C90, C120, Type I, II, IV

✓ Digital Greenhouse transfers this — Standard audio cassettes, recorded at 48 kHz, 16-bit and saved lossless.

Years: 1963 – today (peak in the 1980s)
Size: 100.4 × 63.8 × 12 mm
Holds: C60, C90 and C120: 60, 90 or 120 minutes across both sides
Reads it today: Any cassette deck or portable player. USB cassette players for about $30–$60 plug straight into a computer.
How it fails: Mould, stretched or tangled tape, and squeal from a dried-out pressure pad. C120 tape is very thin and snaps easily.
Tell it apart: The tape type is set by notches on the back edge. Type I (normal) has only the write-protect notches; Type II (chrome) adds a pair right beside them; Type IV (metal) adds a second pair near the middle as well.

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Microcassette

MC-60, MC-30, dictaphone tape

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1969 – 2010s
Size: 50 × 33 × 7 mm
Holds: 30 to 60 minutes per side, depending on the speed
Reads it today: A microcassette recorder or transcriber. Machines run at two speeds (2.4 and 1.2 cm/s), so play it at the speed it was recorded at.
How it fails: Tape stretches; players with worn belts run at the wrong speed.
Tell it apart: About a quarter the size of an audio cassette. Used in dictaphones and answering machines.

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A 13 cm (5-inch) Philips reel of quarter-inch tape — Photo: R. Henrik Nilsson, CC BY 4.0

Reel-to-reel tape

Open reel, quarter-inch tape

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1940s – 1980s at home (studios into the 2000s)
Size: 178 mm reel (7-inch)
Holds: Depends on reel size, tape thickness and speed: a 7-inch reel holds about 30 minutes to several hours
Reads it today: A reel-to-reel deck that matches the track layout (full, half or quarter track) and speed (commonly 3¾ or 7½ inches per second).
How it fails: Old acetate tapes go brittle and smell of vinegar. Many 1970s–80s polyester tapes develop “sticky shed”: the binder softens and sheds onto the heads, and the tape needs professional treatment (usually controlled “baking”, which only helps for a while and doesn’t work on every tape) before it can be played.
Tell it apart: Tape on an open reel, usually 5, 7 or 10½ inches across. The drawing shows a 7-inch reel.

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8-track cartridge

Stereo 8, 8-track tape

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1965 – early 1980s
Size: ≈ 133 × 102 × 20 mm
Holds: Typically 40 to 80 minutes, as four stereo programmes on one endless loop
Reads it today: An 8-track player, now second-hand and usually needing new belts.
How it fails: The foam pad and the foil splice that marks the loop’s join both decay, so the tape stops or jams.
Tell it apart: A chunky plastic cartridge about the size of a paperback, with the tape loop visible at one end.

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A small DAT cassette beside a larger audio cassette — Photo: Inpriva, CC0 (cropped)

DAT

Digital Audio Tape, R-DAT, DDS (as computer backup)

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1987 – 2005 (decks)
Size: 73 × 54 × 10.5 mm
Holds: 2 hours at 48 kHz (3 hours on the longest tapes); long-play mode records at 32 kHz and doubles that
Reads it today: A DAT deck, now second-hand and often needing new pinch rollers. Its digital output gives an exact copy into an audio interface.
How it fails: Thin tape, and machine mechanisms that fail. Errors show as clicks or muting rather than hiss.
Tell it apart: Smaller than an audio cassette, with a hinged flap like a miniature video tape. The same cassette was used for computer backup as DDS; see backup tapes.

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MiniDisc

MD, Hi-MD, NetMD

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1992 – 2013 (Sony made blank discs until 2025)
Size: 72 × 68 × 5 mm
Holds: 60, 74 or 80 minutes (up to 320 minutes in long-play modes); Hi-MD discs hold 1 GB
Reads it today: A MiniDisc deck or player, played out in real time. Some Sony Hi-MD recorders can upload recordings to a computer digitally.
How it fails: Holds up well; the players fail before the discs do.
Tell it apart: A small square disc in a plastic shell, like a shrunken floppy. Recordable ones have a shutter on both sides; pre-recorded albums only on one.

Floppy disks, Zip disks, drives & backup tapes

Computer storage that has outlived the computers. The disks themselves are often fine; the hard part is finding a working drive, and a way to connect it to anything modern.

Each outline is drawn to scale beside a bank card (85.6 × 54 mm), so you can hold the real thing up against one.

To scale

8-inch floppy disk

8″ diskette

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1971 – 1980s
Size: 203 × 203 × 2 mm
Holds: From 80 KB to about 1.2 MB
Reads it today: An 8-inch drive and controller, or a specialist flux reader. This is a specialist job.
How it fails: Flexible disk that sheds oxide with age; drives are very rare.
Tell it apart: A flexible square, 8 inches (203 mm) across.

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8-inch, 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks side by side — Photo: George Chernilevsky, Public domain

5¼-inch floppy disk

5.25″ diskette, DD, HD

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1976 – 1990s
Size: 133 × 133 × 2 mm
Holds: PC: 360 KB or 1.2 MB. Apple II: 140 KB. Commodore 64: 170 KB
Reads it today: A 5¼-inch drive in an old computer, or a modern USB flux reader (Greaseweazle, KryoFlux) attached to one, which can read formats a normal PC can’t.
How it fails: The magnetic coating sheds and goes mouldy. With mouldy or shedding disks, clean the drive heads between disks.
Tell it apart: A flexible square sleeve with an oval read window and a large centre hole.

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A 3.5-inch HD floppy disk — Photo: Peter Astbury, CC0

3½-inch floppy disk

Floppy, diskette, DD, HD, 1.44 MB

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1982 – 2000s
Size: 90 × 94 × 3.3 mm
Holds: 720 KB (DD) or 1.44 MB (HD) on a PC; 400 or 800 KB on early Macs
Reads it today: A USB floppy drive (about $20–$40) reads PC-format 1.44 MB disks, and most read 720 KB too (some cheap ones don’t). It can’t read early Mac 400/800 KB disks, Amiga disks or other non-PC formats; those need a flux reader.
How it fails: Weakening magnetic signal, mould, and a stuck metal shutter. Expect some unreadable sectors on disks from the 1990s.
Tell it apart: Hard plastic shell with a sliding metal shutter. HD disks have a second hole, opposite the write-protect tab, and often an “HD” logo.

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An Iomega Zip 100 disk — Photo: Bobulous, CC BY-SA 4.0

Zip disk

Iomega Zip 100, 250, 750

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1995 – 2000s
Size: 97 × 98 × 6 mm
Holds: 100, 250 or 750 MB
Reads it today: A Zip drive of the same size or larger (a Zip 250 drive reads 100s too). USB Zip drives still turn up second-hand.
How it fails: The “click of death”: a drive or disk fault that can spread damage to other disks. If a drive starts clicking, stop.
Tell it apart: A thick square disk, a bit bigger than a floppy, with the Iomega logo and the capacity on the label.

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An Iomega Jaz 1 GB disk — Photo: KMJ, CC BY-SA 3.0

Jaz disk

Iomega Jaz 1GB, 2GB

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1996 – 2002
Size: ≈ 100 × 105 × 10 mm
Holds: 1 or 2 GB
Reads it today: A Jaz drive, usually SCSI, so it also needs a computer with a SCSI card.
How it fails: The drives were unreliable even when new. Drive and interface are the hard part.
Tell it apart: Thicker than a Zip disk, with a Jaz logo; really a removable hard disk.

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A 3.5-inch desktop hard drive beside a 2.5-inch laptop drive — Photo: MaxVT, CC BY-SA 3.0

Old hard drives

IDE, PATA, SATA, 3.5-inch, 2.5-inch

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1980s – today
Size: ≈ 102 × 147 × 26 mm
Holds: From a few megabytes to many terabytes
Reads it today: A USB adapter or dock for the right connector: IDE (wide 40-pin on desktop drives, a smaller 44-pin on laptop drives; common until about 2007) or SATA (thin L-shaped plug, from about 2003). The drawing shows a desktop 3.5-inch drive; laptop drives are 2.5-inch.
How it fails: Mechanical drives wear out; a drive that clicks, buzzes or isn’t recognised should not be powered on again and again, as each attempt can make it worse.
Tell it apart: A sealed metal box. Check the connector against our connector reference.

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Backup tapes

DDS, DAT72, LTO, QIC, Travan

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1980s – today
Size: 102 × 105.4 × 21.5 mm
Holds: DDS: 1.3 to 160 GB. LTO: 100 GB (LTO-1) to 18 TB (LTO-9) and beyond
Reads it today: A drive of the same family and a recent-enough generation (an LTO drive usually reads one or two generations back; the newest, LTO-10, reads only LTO-10), plus the backup software that wrote it.
How it fails: The tape usually outlasts the software that made it. Without the original backup program, the data may be hard to get out even from a good tape.
Tell it apart: LTO is a square cartridge about 10 cm across, with the generation on the label. The drawing shows LTO. DDS uses the small DAT cassette.

Memory cards

The cards out of old digital cameras, phones and MP3 players. Flash memory holds its data well, but it doesn’t last forever unpowered, and readers for the older shapes are getting hard to buy.

Each outline is drawn to scale beside a bank card (85.6 × 54 mm), so you can hold the real thing up against one.

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CompactFlash

CF, CF Type I, CF Type II

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1994 – today
Size: 43 × 36 × 3.3 mm
Holds: From 2 MB to 256 GB and more
Reads it today: A USB card reader with a CF slot.
How it fails: Very durable. The weak point is the reader: the pins are in the slot, and a card pushed in crooked bends them.
Tell it apart: A thick card with two rows of pinholes along one edge. Type II is 5 mm thick.

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SmartMedia

SSFDC

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1995 – early 2000s
Size: 45 × 37 × 0.76 mm
Holds: Up to 128 MB
Reads it today: A card reader that lists SmartMedia, now hard to find new. Older multi-card readers often have the slot.
How it fails: Very thin, flexible card with exposed gold contacts that are easily damaged.
Tell it apart: A thin card with a large gold contact panel on one face. Used in early Olympus and Fujifilm cameras.

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xD-Picture Card

xD, Type M, Type H, Type M+

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 2002 – about 2010
Size: 20 × 25 × 1.7 mm
Holds: 16 MB to 2 GB
Reads it today: A card reader that lists xD, or the camera itself over USB.
How it fails: Durable; readers are the scarce part.
Tell it apart: A tiny flat card, smaller than a postage stamp, labelled xD. Used by Olympus and Fujifilm.

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Memory Stick

Memory Stick, PRO, Duo, PRO Duo, Micro (M2)

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1998 – 2010s
Size: 50 × 21.5 × 2.8 mm
Holds: Up to 128 MB (original); up to 32 GB (PRO and PRO Duo)
Reads it today: A card reader that lists Memory Stick. Duo cards fit full-size slots with an adapter. The drawing shows the original full-size stick.
How it fails: Durable; readers are the scarce part.
Tell it apart: Sony’s own long, thin card, about the size of a stick of chewing gum. Duo is about two-thirds the length (31 × 20 mm).

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MultiMediaCard

MMC, RS-MMC

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1997 – 2000s
Size: 24 × 32 × 1.4 mm
Holds: Up to a few gigabytes
Reads it today: Many SD slots, especially older ones, read it.
How it fails: Durable.
Tell it apart: Looks like an SD card but thinner, with no write-protect switch and seven contacts instead of nine.

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SD card

SD, SDHC, SDXC, SDUC

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 1999 – today
Size: 24 × 32 × 2.1 mm
Holds: SD: up to 2 GB. SDHC: 4–32 GB. SDXC: 64 GB–2 TB
Reads it today: Any SD reader. Old readers and cameras made before about 2008 may not read SDHC, and some made before about 2010 won’t read SDXC.
How it fails: Durable, but cheap and counterfeit cards fail suddenly. Don’t leave the only copy of anything on a card.
Tell it apart: Has a cut corner and a sliding write-protect switch on the side. The class and capacity are printed on the front.

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miniSD

miniSD, miniSDHC

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 2003 – about 2008
Size: 20 × 21.5 × 1.4 mm
Holds: Up to 2 GB (miniSDHC: 4 GB and up)
Reads it today: An SD reader with a miniSD-to-SD adapter.
How it fails: Durable.
Tell it apart: Between SD and microSD in size. Mostly found in mid-2000s phones.

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microSD

TransFlash, microSDHC, microSDXC

Ask us — not part of our transfer service, but we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help or who can.

Years: 2004 – today
Size: 11 × 15 × 1 mm
Holds: As SD: up to 2 GB, 32 GB (SDHC) or 2 TB (SDXC)
Reads it today: An SD reader with a microSD adapter, or a USB microSD reader.
How it fails: Small enough to lose; cheap ones fail suddenly. Dashcams and security cameras wear them out by constant rewriting.
Tell it apart: Fingernail-sized card. Often still in the phone, dashcam or drone.

Got a box of these?

We transfer standard VHS tapes and audio cassettes, and copy CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays onto a drive or USB stick you keep, with a read attempt on scratched or ageing discs and an honest answer if one can’t be saved. For everything else on this page, ask: we’ll tell you straight whether we can help, and what people ask for decides what we add next.

Tape & disc transfer Ask about a format

Common questions

How long do burned CDs and DVDs last?

There’s no single number: it depends on the dye, the brand, how well it was burned and how it was stored. Many burned discs from the late 1990s and 2000s still read, but a growing number don’t, and cheap brands go first. Factory-pressed discs usually last much longer. If a burned disc holds the only copy of something that matters, copy it off now while it still reads.

What does it mean when a DVD isn’t finalised?

DVD recorders and DVD camcorders write the disc’s table of contents last, in a step called finalising. Until then the disc only plays in the machine that recorded it. The fix is to finalise it in that machine, or a compatible one. If the machine is gone, the recording can often still be recovered by reading the disc directly — ask us.

Can I play a VHS-C tape in a normal VCR?

Yes, with a VHS-C adapter: a full-size cassette shell that the small tape slots into. VHS-C is the same tape as VHS in a smaller cassette. Video8, Hi8 and MiniDV are different tapes, and no adapter makes them play in a VCR.

How can I tell Video8, Hi8 and MiniDV apart?

MiniDV is the smallest, about matchbox size (66 × 48 mm). Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 share a bigger cassette, about the size of an audio cassette but thicker, labelled 8mm, Hi8 or Digital8. VHS-C is a little thicker and holds the wider half-inch VHS tape.

Can a modern computer read floppy disks?

A USB floppy drive (about $20–$40) reads ordinary PC 3½-inch 1.44 MB disks, and most read 720 KB too. It can’t read early Mac 400/800 KB disks, Amiga disks or 5¼-inch disks. Those need an old computer with the right drive, or a USB flux reader such as a Greaseweazle attached to an old drive.

What should I do with a mouldy tape?

Don’t play it. Mould shows as white or grey fuzz or spots on the edge of the tape, visible through the window. Playing it spreads spores onto the machine’s heads and on to the next tape. Keep it somewhere dry and apart from other tapes, and have it cleaned before anyone tries a transfer. We check every tape for mould before it goes near a machine.

How should I store old tapes and discs?

Cool, dry and dark, standing upright in their cases, away from speakers, magnets and sunlight. Avoid garages, sheds and roof spaces, where heat and humidity swing. Don’t stick labels on discs or write on them with solvent markers. And make a digital copy: good storage only slows the decay.

CDs, DVDs & Blu-ray

CD (pressed)

CD-R

CD-RW

DVD (pressed)

DVD±R

DVD±RW

DVD-RAM

8 cm DVD

Blu-ray

LaserDisc

Video tapes

VHS

S-VHS

VHS-C

Betamax

Video8, Hi8 & Digital8

MiniDV

Audio tapes & MiniDisc

Audio cassette

Microcassette

Reel-to-reel tape

8-track cartridge

DAT

MiniDisc

Floppy disks, Zip disks, drives & backup tapes

8-inch floppy disk

5¼-inch floppy disk

3½-inch floppy disk

Zip disk

Jaz disk

Old hard drives

Backup tapes

Memory cards

CompactFlash

SmartMedia

xD-Picture Card

Memory Stick

MultiMediaCard

SD card

miniSD

microSD

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Common questions

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