When the MP3 format was developed in the early 1990s the average computer hard drive was only 500 MB to 1 GB. This means that copying CD-quality audio files to a computer hard drive was a virtual non-starter due to a lack of available storage space. The answer was to find a way to compress the audio files while preserving the quality of the audio to a level that most people would find undiscernable when compared to the original recording. The MP3 format accomplished this. It allowed compression of audio files to less than 10% their original size while preserving the quality of the recording.