Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!usc!polyslo!csun!srhqla!tcm
From: tcm@srhqla.UUCP (Tim Meighan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Single sided diskettes
Message-ID: <697@srhqla.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 89 23:31:42 GMT
Reply-To: tcm@srhqla.UUCP (Tim Meighan)
Organization: Silent Radio, Los Angeles
Lines: 28

In article <2214@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
(Cliff Joslyn) writes:
>
>Is it kosher to use 5.25" SS/DD disks formatted at 360K . . .

It depends on how important your data is to you.  No one starts out intending
to manufacture SS disks.  What happens is that after a disk is manufactured,
a surface defect test is run on it.  If both sides fail to pass, the disk is
rejected.  If one side passes, the disk is marked SS.  If both sides pass,
the disk is marked DS.  When you use the back side of a SS floppy, you
are using media that the manufacturer doesn't think is good enough to
sell.

For me, floppies just aren't expensive enough to risk using questionable
media.  I do not believe that floppy manufacturers simply mark certain
disks as DS and sell them for more because they can get away with it.  If
that were the case, they would simply sell the SS floppies at the higher
DS price.

Free plug:  I have found Sony DS-DD diskettes to be incredibly good, better
than any other floppies I have ever used.  They can be had for under a 
buck a piece -- about 60 cents each if you buy in bulk.  Pretty cheap for
such high quality.  I have no connection with Sony - just a satisfied buyer.

Tim Meighan
SilentRadio

"I've got one, two, three, four, five . . . senses working overtime!"