Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!news
From: sherwood@space.ualberta.ca  (Sherwood Botsford)
Subject: Re: 20 Meg Floppies
Message-ID: <1991May6.185938.20026@cs.UAlberta.CA>
Sender: news@cs.UAlberta.CA (News Administrator)
Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
References: <1991May3.172155.10286@cs.mcgill.ca>
Date: Mon, 6 May 1991 18:59:38 GMT

Yeo-Hoon BAE writes
> 
> But there's one thing that concerns about these 20meg floppies...
> Each disks must be factory formatted, which means any disk that
> gets damaged during use will be useless unless sent back to the
> factory - not very convenient.
> 
> Other than this point, I really like the drives(technically)
> 

Nah.  Back in the bad old days when CP/M ruled (Did I hear a shudder out  
there?)  and ordinary floppy disks cost 5 bucks each (About 2 hours minimum  
wage for you young whippersnappers) the quality was abysmal.  Soon however a  
raft of sector testing programs appeared.  You ran the program on a disk; all  
bad sectors were added to a hidden file.  Seems to me that similar action could
be done with these critters.