7 forgotten storage formats that definitely stole your files
Before SD cards became the default (well, one of the defaults) in removable storage, this whole part of the storage market was a jumble of tiny, incompatible formats that only really worked with specific devices or brands.
If you took digital photos in the early 2000s, there’s a good chance that one of these cards ended up losing your photos. Maybe it happened while you were still using it, or maybe you lost it in a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again. And even if you find it, your files might be long gone.
Before SD cards, removable storage was a disaster
That’s still the case, but it’s much better.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the tech era of the 90s and 2000s. It was all a bit weird, many brands had their own proprietary technology (which was annoying back then, but nostalgia glasses make me look at it more fondly now), and cross-device compatibility was… questionable.
What people often forget (in this context, I’m people) is that weirdness sometimes results in real data loss. Early flash storage didn’t have the same safety nets that we take for granted today. SSDs can die for any reason, even at 100% health, but they are practically titans of reliability compared to older SD cards.
Even when everything was fine with the card itself, the readers were sometimes wonky too. It sometimes felt like all the stars had to align for your data to live peacefully on the iteration of the memory card you chose for file storage.
X forgotten memory cards that you have probably lost over the years
Even if you know where they are, they may no longer have your files.
If you’ve ever had a digital camera, a PSP, an early smartphone, or any other similar device, you probably own at least one of the formats I’ll introduce below. Some were flimsy, some were exclusive, and some were niche. Everyone has played a role in getting us to where we are today, with microSD cards being widely available and supported.
I’ve owned a bunch of them. I couldn’t tell you where some of them are now. Chances are you also have some in a drawer or box somewhere. But even though the cards themselves have survived, technology has since evolved, making most of the cards below completely obsolete by 2026.
1. Smart Media
SmartMedia was one of the first flash memory cards. They were found in digital cameras at the turn of the 2000s, but also in musical equipment, notably synthesizers and keyboards. The idea was that you could take photos or songs directly onto them and then extract them to copy them to a PC.
With a maximum capacity of 128 MB, SmartMedia simply couldn’t keep up when file sizes became larger and larger over the years. Compatibility was also iffy, with 3.3V and 5V card variants making it more confusing than it needed to be.
2. xD-Picture card
xD was more than just an emoticon used by Millennials as teenagers. It was also a proprietary flash card created by Olympus and Fujifilm as a replacement for SmartMedia, primarily used in their digital cameras. He had the same role, but he achieved much greater abilities.
It fell into obscurity because it remained tied to the brand and couldn’t compete as SD scaled faster on all fronts, including capacity, speed, and support for the entire ecosystem.
3. USB key
When I think of USB drives, I think of the RAM-pocalypse and how I wish I could buy more USB drives without spending a fortune. But back then, Memory Stick was Sony’s exclusive family of flash cards. It was basically removable storage for all sorts of Sony devices including cameras, camcorders, PC kits, and more.
But, like many other entries on this list, it has fallen out of favor due to a lack of compatibility. Once SD/microSD became sufficiently capable and widely supported, the incentive to pay the Sony tax disappeared.
Memory Stick also existed in Duo/Pro Duo versions, closely associated with devices like the PSP. There was also the Memory Stick Micro (M2), which was the small format used in Sony Ericsson mobile phones, remember that?
4. MMC (Multimedia Card)
Most of us remember MMC. MMCs were a removable flash format intended for portable devices, such as phones or cameras. It was essentially removable NAND flash storage, similar to SD cards.
Add MMC to another list of storage media that have been destroyed by SD cards. However, MMCs still exist and are widely used, but much less so as removable storage. Instead, you’ll find them as built-in variants, with eMMC storage still present in some devices. eMMCs are soldered, much like soldered RAM. You’ll find them in budget phones, tablets, and even laptops and Chromebooks, but also in SBCs and IoT devices.
5. RS-MMC
RS-MMC was a smaller MMC variant used almost exclusively in mobile phones, and it usually relied on an adapter to fit into standard MMC slots. It was the ideal solution for devices requiring a small form factor, at least until microSD became the universal small card.
His big problem was that it was a transitional impasse. As phones evolved and moved to newer formats, adapter dependence became a chore for many users. RS-MMCs were quickly abandoned as simpler options appeared on the market.
6.miniSD
Here’s another one of those “replaced by microSD” formats: miniSD. It existed as a smaller SD format, mainly to satisfy the size constraints of mobile phones before microSD took over. It did exactly what SD did, just in a smaller format.
It has been replaced by microSD. The SD Association itself admits that miniSD has been replaced by microSD, leaving us with two form factors commonly found on shelves.
7. CompactFlash
CompactFlash (CF) has been the “pro” card for years, especially in high-end cameras. It was a robust storage solution with a 50-pin connector, designed to work with PC/ATA card concepts. Honestly, it was really more of a reader than a card.
It’s much less popular now that SD cards dominate the world, but CF still has great support among camera and memory card manufacturers. It’s never been as popular as anything else on this list, but that’s due to its focus on prosumers.
Are any of them still working in 2026?
Anything can work if you try hard enough, right?
So that’s where we are right now. SD and microSD cards dominate the market, but they didn’t win because they were vastly better than everything else on this list. (Well, they were, but that’s because of the evolution of the technology and not the proof of concept itself.)
They won because they brought some unity to a market that was previously ruled by chaos. With all sorts of proprietary formats and compatibility issues, an SD card was absolutely necessary.
For most of these formats, you can still make them work if you desperately need to, but most are not widely used. It’s more of a “back up your files and forget” type of thing at this point.
If you find one somewhere and want a good chance of restoring your files, make sure you’re using a drive that explicitly supports the format, or better yet, use the original device as the drive if possible. Don’t write anything new on the card. Go ahead, copy what you can and let it sit. There are better portable storage solutions available these days, from USB drives to NVMe SSDs in enclosures.
