Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!killer!jfh
From: jfh@killer.UUCP (The Beach Bum)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Teflon Diskettes
Summary: Technical corrections ...
Message-ID: <2976@killer.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jan 88 06:38:08 GMT
References: <36400002@hcx2>
Organization: Big "D" Home for Wayward Hackers
Lines: 50

In article <36400002@hcx2>, daver@hcx2.SSD.HARRIS.COM writes:
> Having received a free Verbatim DataLifePlus Teflon-protected minidisk in the
> mail, I have the following concern before feeding it into the disk drive:
> How permanent is the Teflon coating?

Should be pretty permanent.

> The Teflon on my cooking skillets has
> come off in places (probably through improper treatment).

Excess heat can cause this.  Also thermal stress such as taking a hot
skillet and dropping it in a sink full of cold water.  This is not
something you are likely to do with a floppy disk.

> Will the same thing
> happen to the diskette and interfere with the operation of the read/write
> head?

Not likely, the coating is most likely very thin.  Under normal use, some
dirt does build up on the disk surface and the inside of the sleeve keeps
the cruft under control (btw - this is why you never use a single sided
diskette on the other side by flipping it over.  when the disk spins
backwards the dirt can become dislogded)  Whatever coating came off would
be no worse that the regular run of the mill dirt.  Possibly better.

> Granted, the head and the disk are never supposed to meet.

Wrong.  On floppy disk drives the heads are loaded directly onto the
media.  You are thinking of hard disks where the heads float (so they
say ;-) on a cushion of air.  Coating the media with teflon is probably
intended to reduce the friction between the head and media, and the
resulting wear.

> Is data intregrity
> really higher as the manufacturer claims?

Why?  How high do they claim it to be?  I have some 5 year old Verbatim
8" floppies that have never lost a bit.  Buying quality diskettes will
go a long way to improving data integrity.  Also, tossing the disks after
they develop errors, rather than reformatting 4 or 5 times until you
get a clean format.  (hint - write the format date on the original permanent
label and only reformat once at most, and then, don't trust that disk for
any important)

- John.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                  SNAIL:  HECI Exploration Co. Inc.
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!killer!jfh                11910 Greenville Ave, Suite 600
"Don't Have an Oil Well? ...              Dallas, TX. 75243
 ... Then Buy One!"                       (214) 231-0993 Ext 260