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From: 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: MEI/Micro Center floppy disks
Keywords: disk
Message-ID: <6834@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 27 Oct 90 20:20:35 GMT
Sender: news@hub.ucsb.edu
Distribution: comp
Lines: 40

Fellow netters...

For 7 years I've been buying floppy disks, generally sticking
with a name brand or an off-brand that I'd had good experience
with but occasionally buying generics with success.

Although I generally never buy anything from Computer Shopper,
I've seen enough MEI/Micro Center advertisements over the
years to feel it was worth ordering from them.

My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday
and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was
a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors.
I tried the remaining 24 in the package... out of 25 diskettes I
had problems with 3. I've never had a failure rate like that...
in fact I only remember ONE diskette in 7 years that failed to
properly format the first time. My drive is fine. I'm afraid to
try the 3.5" diskettes.

Has anyone else had experience with MEI/Micro? The 5.25" HD and
3.5" DD were labelled "Made in China" (please do not interpret
this as a flame of China although their government deserves it)
while the 3.5" HD were "Made in Hong Kong." I give this informa-
tion simply because it was the only identification on them.

In the future I will DEFINITELY buy from my previous, reliable
sources. My data is too valuable (tens of thousands of dollars
of consulting research effort on each diskette) to risk it even
though I do MULTIPLE backups stored in separate locations (in
case of fire, flood or other disaster). Even with this policy
I've come close... one of my client's computers chewed up two
floppies with text of a manual I wrote for them (luckily I had
two other copies... one on hard disk and one on floppy).

Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or
worse?

Bill Bushing

"Life is too important to be taken seriously."   - Einstein