Path: utzoo!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!genrad!daf
From: daf@genrad.com (David A. Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Have you checked your floppies lately?
Summary: How do people define a 'bad' floppy?
Message-ID: <19510@genrad.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 89 19:39:20 GMT
References: <28718@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@genrad.UUCP
Reply-To: daf@genrad.UUCP (David A. Fagan)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 24

In article <28718@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>[salient points deleted...:-)]
>
>One of the things I did was re-initialize all my DiskFit backups. The scary
>part was that out of about 60 floppies (three different sets of full backups
>over two machines) three of them failed initialization -- there were three
>bad floppies in my backups. 
>

	Chuq's posting reminded me of something that I've been wondering about
lately: How bad is a bad floppy?  Sometimes, if a disk won't initialize, and I
try it again, the initialization is succesesful.  Sometimes, I'll try even a
3rd or 4th time and eventually have some luck.  Problem is, I worry about
those floopies that didn't format cleanly on the first try.  I treat them as
second-class floppies & don't put anything too important on them.  Am I being
paranoid?  Can any one assure me (theoretical better than anectdotal) that a
floppy that gets through an initialization is reliable for use with the Mac,
no matter what it's condition before?  Or, does anyone feel strongly that
diskettes that fail initialization once should be thrown out?

Dave Fagan			|"Next time I will..."
UUCP:	...genrad!bigvax!daf	|"From now on I will..."
Internet:  daf@athena.mit.edu"	|-What makes me think I'm wiser to day than
				|   I'll be tomorrow?		-Hugh Prather