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From: browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: strange problem with DSDD floppies: they won't stay formatted
Message-ID: <1288.270b7bf7@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>
Date: 4 Oct 90 23:14:14 GMT
References: <3801@network.ucsd.edu>
Distribution: usa
Lines: 22

In article <3801@network.ucsd.edu>, ssubrama@weber.ucsd.edu (Shankar Subramanian) writes:
> I'm stuck with a hundred DSDD unbranded 5.25 inch floppies that I bought two
> years ago.  Now a week or so after I format them and put data on
> them the files disappear and the floppies appear unformatted.  At
> this stage, the error message 'track 0 unusable or bad" often
> appears when one tries to reformat them, [...]

Have you cleaned the heads of your disk drive recently?  Head cleaning
kits are about $10 as I recall, and last a long long time.  If you're
lucky, that's the whole problem.

How old is your disk drive?  My A: drive went after about two years.  It
would have cost about $70 to realign the heads and it cosst $90 to buy a
new one.  Guess which I did.

Does this problem happen with a good brand of diskette?  If not, maybe
the oxide is coming off your cheapo floppies.  (I've never heard of such
a  thing, but who knows?)

The above is my own opinion and not attributable to any other person or
organization.                        email: browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.    (216) 371-0043