Many different implementations of a disc-based storage media have been developed in the previous decades; some with fairly high market share and some that barely made it to production. These devices range in size from just over an inch (~30mm) to over 12 inches (~300mm) with the smaller formats typically used for consumer electronics and home computers while the larger formats were primarily utilized in medical, industrial, and other enterprise contexts.

One of the smallest commercial examples of Disc-Based Enclosed Media (DBEM) is the DataPlay disk. The 32 mm (1-1/4 inch) phase-change, optical disc was housed inside of a translucent and brightly-colored cartridge¹⁾ with dimensions of 41 mm × 33.5 mm × 3 mm²⁾. Introduced in 2002 by DataPlay, Inc. (Later DPHM, inc.), DataPlay disks were intended to compete with the budding flash-based memory card market by offering a large capacity (250 MB per side, 500 MB per disk) in a small form-factor.

Their proprietary file system — DataPlay File System (DFS) — and support for DRM helped them gain initial interest in the portable music industry, but the prevalence of CDs and the recent release of portable MP3 players made this a tough market to enter.

The short-lived iD Photo system — developed jointly by Sanyo, Olympus, and Hitachi Maxell — was announced to the public in July 1999, poised to enter the crowded market soon after. Sanyo and Olympus developed the drive mechanism, while Maxell was responsible for disk development. With a footprint of only 56.5 mm × 59.5 mm × 4.8 mm, the iD Photo disks were quite small in size, but boasted a storage capacity of 730 MB³⁾.

Of the different DBEM formats, 3.5 in (90 mm) was probably the most well adopted in the consumer market. It did not see much use in Western countries while it became relatively popular in some Asian markets (such as Japan).