The basics of floppy disk is a coated plastic disk. By changing the status of magnetization floppy disks are capable of storing binary data.When using magneto-optical systems in order to visualize magnetic information on floppy disks it is possible to investigate damaged or forged floppy disks optically and additionally via image processing software. In addition to floppy disks, magneto-optical systems are also capable of analyze IOmega Zip-Disks, Sony Mini-Disk (Hi-MD), Olympus MO-Disk and Sanyo IDPhoto Disk.

In addition to floppy disks‘ information also magnetic hard drives disks‘ information can be analysed using magneto-optical sensor systems (cmos-magview). Due to the possibility of an optical analysis and investigation, forensic applications of reconstructing damaged information is possible even when standard „disk read-and-write heads“ are failing. Magneto-optical sensor systems are not just capable of visualizing standard hard disk drives, it is also possible to investigate for example IBM Microdrive Disks.