Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!boulder!rieman
From: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: 800K floppies on a IIx; FDHD problems?
Keywords: 800K floppy IIx FDHD
Message-ID: <14517@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 4 Dec 89 06:31:44 GMT
References: <1148@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 28

In article <1148@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes:
>
[Lots of questions I can't answer, followed by:]
>
>  Finally, do FDHD drives ever cause difficulty for 800K disks?  I used some
>of my disks (formatted on my Plus) in a IIx, and then the II that I took them
>to wouldn't recognize them. I didn't reformat or anything, just used them.  The
>II has never given any further problems, so I figure it must have been the IIx
>(which I've been unable to use since then, so I couldn't check).
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>--Mike

My experience is that the FDHD is much less than 100% successful with 800K
disks.  I've had a lot of "Disk Write Error, File Skipped" messages when
trying to copy files onto an 800K floppy in SE/30.  They occur especially
when the file being copied would have almost filled the floppy.  Sometimes
retrying the operation is successful.  Sometimes I've tried to reformat the
floppy, and it's inevitably come up bad -- and after that it can't be
reformatted on an 800K drive either.

I had the drive replaced, but it didn't solve the problem.  I've had the
same problem with a IIcx at my office.  Of course, maybe I just have
lots and lots of bad floppies -- but I've seen more 800K floppies fail
in six months with an FDHD than in 3 years with the 800K drive in a Plus.

-john