Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!umich!sharkey!msuinfo!news
From: draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: MEI / MicroCenter Diskettes (again)
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.093706.218@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 90 09:37:06 GMT
References: <39963@ut-emx.uucp> <39970@ut-emx.uucp> <1025@gistdev.gist.com>
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Reply-To: draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Lines: 32

In article <1025@gistdev.gist.com> flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) writes:
>awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) writes:
>
>>In article <39963@ut-emx.uucp> readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) writes:
>
>
>>Uh, can anyone out there shed some light on the issue of diskette failure
>>rate AFTER they have been formatted?  If that many disks fail formatting,
>>how many are likely to fail later, when you have data on them?  Especially
>>over time with changing diskette drive read heads?
>
>Recent history only: Over the past 6 months, using around 150 3.5" HD and 100
>5.25" HD and maybe 100 5.25" DSDD diskettes from MEI, I've never yet had one
>fail if it formatted properly.  (An error rate that is measurable is too high.) 
Hi,

Call me stupid or whatever, but I've got a couple of SINGLE SIDED 3.5"
diskettes (no brand, meant to hold 360K) that I've been using for a
couple years formatted at 1.44 Megabytes. I don't keep anything valuable
on them, just moving things between computers and stuff like that, and
I've had no errors.

I agree that if you can get the diskette to format and work reliably, it
won't fail until the metal oxide wears off the disk - a couple years or
more of heavy use.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Draper              In times like these it is helpful to
buster.cps.msu.edu          remember that there have always been
                            times like these.
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