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From: laser-lovers@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.laser-lovers
Subject: Re: Self-trashing Imagen firmware?
Message-ID: <1304@uw-beaver>
Date: Mon, 10-Jun-85 15:06:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1304
Posted: Mon Jun 10 15:06:18 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Jun-85 07:11:46 EDT
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 52

From: imagen!geof@su-shasta.ARPA


In response to Dave Fuchs' message about Imagen diskettes, allow me to
provide the following information:

Imagen's policy is to send two diskettes to each customer, so that the
customer should not be without a diskette if one is damaged.  Our
apologies are extended to Mr. Fuchs if he was mistakenly sent a single
diskette.  Customers who purchase an Ethernet communications option are
sent four diskettes, two for SIO and two for Ethernet (the intent is to
allow a customer to be ambivalent about using the Ethernet option).

Imagen will replace damaged diskettes with identical ones (the same
version of software); an upgrade may be offered to a customer who has
purchased printer resident software support [although these customers
are probably running the latest software anyway].

Current policy is that copying diskettes is a service we provide (free)
to customers, rather than requiring them to do it themselves (and
disabling the printer while they do it).  This has the advantage that
it allows us to monitor the reliability of our diskette hardware.  If
we see too many requests for diskette replacements, we are probably
shipping flakey or misaligned drives and should look to fix the
problem.  All this is assuming, of course, that our customers are not
inconvenienced since they have a spare diskette.  This policy could
change in the future, especially if this assumption is false.

A quick test in my office confirms that version 2.1 and later of the
printer software allows for diskettes to be write protected.  However,
the only thing that the printer writes on the disk is a count of read
errors, which is displayed when you run the "information (about)
filesystem" command.  I believe that the problems with bad diskettes
are more likely to be hardware problems -- perhaps that the drive is
bad or misaligned, or simply that the diskette is "wearing thin."

My advice, if you are worried is NOT to write protect the disks, but to
run the "information (about) filesystem" command regularly, and to have
the disk replaced if it shows any read errors.  Keep the backup in a
safe place and switch to it while the replacement diskette is in the
mail.  

A good tip is to always keep the backup diskette configured the way it
should be, since the original configuration may not be available to you
when the first disk breaks.  Also, you should test any new diskette
that arrives so that you are not surprised to find that it is bogus
when you really need it.  We do this test before shipment, but
sometimes a diskette is subjected to less than optimal conditions in
transit to the customer.

- Geof Cooper
  Imagen