The idea was originally created in 1992 by duo Timothy J. Riley and Thomas R. Albrecht at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose.

A team of engineers and designers at IBM's Fujisawa, Japan facility helped make the creation of the drive possible.

Due to the failure of the Kittyhawk, a 1.3-inch hard disk drive also created in 1992 by Hewlett Packard, initial support for it was reluctant.

The Microdrive caused the creation of and used the CompactFlash Type II format which became the de facto standard for devices utilizing the technology at the time.

He wanted to create a small form factor hard disk drive with high capacity storage that would be used for mobile devices, after working on a project to look at Micromechanics.

Two notable people from the Japan development team were Mitsuhiko Aoyagi and Kenji Kuroki, who contributed to launching the product line.

Bill Healey and John Osterhout worked at the storage technology division in San Jose and were responsible for the business development and marketing of the Microdrive.

[8] It was advertised as being about the size of a large coin, weighing less than an AA battery, and storing over 200 times more data than a floppy disk.

[20][21] By 2007, sales and profit of the Microdrive were dwindling so Hitachi discontinued production of 1 inch hard disk drives.

[24] Western Digital launched a 6 GB external USB 2.0 microdrive as a part of the Passport Pocket brand in March 2006.

Based in Longmont (Colorado), it quickly came out with 4GB and 8GB microdrive models, destined to the MP3 player and mobile phone markets.

[26] Toshiba decided to skip the 1" form factor, and in March 2004 announced a 0.85" drive that shipped in September of the same year.

At the time when flash memory was becoming the medium of choice for all portable application, Samsung's entry was very short lived, with only one product carrying the 30 GB model known to ship: JVC's Everio GZ-MG73, an ultra-slim camcorder[31] By 2006, flash-based CompactFlash cards surpassed Microdrives in maximum size and over time became less expensive as well, which rendered the technology obsolete.

As of 2006, Microdrive's capacity advantages were exceeded by CompactFlash cards (which are the same size and are often compatible with each other), and USB flash drives.

[34] Microdrives allow more write cycles than flash storage, making them suitable for use as swap space in embedded applications.

Data on rotational disks is modified in place, and hard drive algorithms at the time were much more advanced than those of flash storage.

[citation needed] They are not designed to operate at high altitudes (over 10,000 feet or 3,000 meters) but can be safely used on most commercial aircraft as cabins are generally pressurized.

[citation needed] Unlike flash storage, Microdrives require power even when no data is being transferred to or read from them, just to keep the disk spinning in order to maintain quick access.

[citation needed] Since they are thicker than flash-based CF cards, Microdrives require a Type II slot.