Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpda!hpcupt1!pvallis From: pvallis@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Paul Vallis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Avg lifetime for a 3.5" floppy? Message-ID: <67710001@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com> Date: 16 Feb 91 01:11:04 GMT References: Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino Lines: 27 / hpcupt1:comp.sys.amiga.misc / cpc@czaeap.UUCP (Chris Cebelenski) / 12:06 pm Feb 4, 1991 / > I started noticing this when I was recycling some older disks > for use as temporary HD back-up disks and Q-Back started rejecting them > left and right! I tried to format a few in AmigaDOS a little later and > results were pretty erratic, most developing R/W errors rather quickly. > Many of these disks were High Densisty disks, but most were normal > DS/DD disks. Comments? Suggestions? -- I too have noticed similar problems and I'm not sure it's totally a problem with the floppies. Quarterback does not use AmigaDos format for storing its data. It uses its own format, which I suspect is so they can pack a whole lot more stuff in the same amount of space. I suspect that many of the floppy disks that Quarterback is rejecting would work perfectly fine as AmigaDos formatted disks (this is the case with a number of my 3.5" disks). Some of your floppies, of course, may actually BE bad. This is not to blame Quarterback. I just suspect that Quarterback is a LOT more picky about the quality of disks you use. Using your old floppies with Quarterback is probably a good way to "weed out" the marginal ones. ========================================================================== .signature file under construction Paul Vallis (pvallis@hpcupt1.hp.com)