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From: blitz@vesd04.enet.dec.com (Martin Blitz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Dead floppies
Message-ID: <18558@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 30 Dec 90 17:48:19 GMT
References: <10547@ilog.UUCP>
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Reply-To: blitz@vesd04.enet.dec.com (Martin Blitz)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 21

I have a 2 year old SE\30.  I don't use floppies very often, but
I have had my share of problems.  I have noticed one correlation
(admittedly not scientifically documented):  Floppies that are write
protected don't seem to die (at least as often).  In one case,
I backed up 30 megs of data to 22 floppies.  After writing to each floppy,
I write protected it after pulling it out of the machine.  At a latter
date, I was
scanning through these floppies, and noticed that 3 or 4 had dies.  Upon
examining these floppies, I noticed that I had missed write protecting
them, and had reinserted them unprotected.  Those that had been protected, are
fine.

Since then, I have been extremely careful about write-protecting my floppies
after writing to them.  I can't remember the last time I experienced a
failure (knock on wood and all that).

Martin Blitz
Digital Equipment Corporation

Obviously, these opinions are mine, and may not be representative
of my employer.