# Why not make square CDs ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683 "2005-10-24T17:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/41 "2022-06-27T17:11:01Z")
None of the magneto-optical discs/mini-discs in square cases were anything but round, were they? Holographic/“3D”/“5D” discs have not been marketed yet, to my knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/42 "2022-06-28T01:57:59Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > None of the magneto-optical discs/mini-discs in square cases were anything but round, were they? The people who asked about CDs may never have seen those, but if they had they wouldn’t necessarily had a clue that the media in the square was circular. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/43 "2022-07-01T21:28:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Of course, it isn’t really the floppy discs themselves that are square. Those square plastic cases hold discs that are round and do spin. But I suspect that there were people who didn’t know that. This reminds me of a demo I did in Computer Literacy classes back in the day. Students kept calling 3.5" floppies “hard drives” since the case was harder than 5.25" drivers. So I’d take 3.5" floppy and rip it up and flap the disk around to show that it really was floppy. They were amazed at a prof doing something so destructive. (Failed floppy disks were all over the place. No loss.) I also in one era used some CD devices that had the square holders. You did _not_ want to lose those. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/44 "2022-07-01T21:32:35Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > CD devices that had the square holders Ah, caddy-loading CD drives. > **[CD-ROM caddy (1985 – mid 1990s) | Museum of Obsolete Media](https://obsoletemedia.org/cd-rom-caddy/)** > > The CD-ROM caddy was a special cartridge for a CD-ROM disc to be placed into before inserting into a CD-ROM drive. Many early CD-ROM drives used caddy loading, though notably not the first drive… If you have very few CD ROMs and just a couple of caddy-loading drives, it was a convenient system of storing and quickly loading or swapping media. But buying caddies added up quickly if you had more than a few. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/45 "2022-07-01T23:01:18Z")
Back in the early days, CD recorders came _only_ in caddy-loading versions. (They also were skuzzy-only.) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683/46 "2022-07-02T00:31:01Z")
Actually, I have a caddy-loading CD-ROM drive with a proprietary Sony interface. Pretty weird. I might use the thing if it actually were SCSI, since I still have several vintage PCs with SCSI busses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-make-square-cds/327683.md?page=2)