kim@analog.UUCP (07/16/84)
The other day I found a dealer which has Sony Microdisks on sale. They were in packages of 5 ea, for $36.90 per pkg. I bought a package and got it home before I realized that this translates to ~ $74 for 10 disks! And I was refusing to buy Memorex disks at $70/10! So far, the pricing for disks appears to be: Apple disks (when you can find them) are $48; HP disks are $58-60; Memorex are $70; and Sony at $74. (Evidently the price is high because the supply is low (I HOPE!)) I have seen and heard various tidbits about HP disks not working very well, and about Memorex disks being D.O.A.--apparently, shutters on some disks are different preventing insertion of the disk into the Mac drive, and some disks won't format properly. One dealer I visit absolutely recommends AGAINST using HP disks in the Mac, but 10 of 10 HP disks that I tried have worked no problem. Sooooooo.... what are the experiences of other Mac Users on the net? Anyone have any horror stories? Any Recommendations? Kim Helliwell hplabs!analog!kim
chavez@harvard.ARPA (R. Martin Chavez) (07/17/84)
In Albuquerque NM, there are no Apple Macintosh disks at all. If you want 3.5-inch media, you have to buy Sony. (I ordered the Software Supplement and got a letter saying that even Apple has run out of disks, so that Supplement shipments are running 3-4 weeks behind schedule.) The Sony disks cost $50 for a box of 10, and are available only at MicroAge. The dealer tells me that Microsoft just placed a $1M order for the disks from Sony, so she got smart and ordered a few thousand disks before supplies began to run short. R. Martin Chavez ...!decvax!genrad!wjh12!harvard!chavez
byron@eosp1.UUCP (Byron Han) (07/18/84)
I spoke to one Apple dealer over the last weekend about the different brands of diskettes. Apparently, the Apple diskettes are the same as the Sony diskettes. The diskettes manufactured by Memorex and Maxell are of inferior quality (according to the dealer) They are priced at the same or higher leels than the Sony diskettes. The reason for the difference in quality is as follows: Look at the first 1/16" wide annulus on the diskette surface. (e.g. a ring 1/16" wide in from the edge of the diskette) On the Apple or Sony diskettes, this region is smooth. On the Memorex or Maxell diskettes, this region is rough and kind of fuzzy. Not a good thing to stick in your disk drive. Apparently, the original release of Microsoft Multiplan was released on on of the latter two diskette brands, which had a lot of problems with disk readilibity due to poor manufacturing. The have subsequently switched to Sony/Apple diskettes. Anyhow that is all that I know. The Sony diskettes are about the same price as Apple diskettes. The prices should go down eventually. And by eventually, this is probably the same time scale as "eventually there will be lots of Macintosh software." Macintosh, Apple, Microsoft, and other stuff I have forgotten, are trademarks of the usual people................... -------------------------------------<bh>-------------------------------------- In-Real-Life: Byron Han USENET: allegra!princeton!eosp1!byron Exxon Office Systems BITNET: 6017040@PUCC (out of money) 500 College Road East TS2552@OHSTVMA (I'm not there) Princeton, NJ 08540 609-734-9200 ext. 229
furuta@uw-june (Richard Furuta) (07/24/84)
These disk prices sound amazingly inflated (except for the HP disks). Here, the quoted prices are $49/10 for Memorex and $59/10 for Hewlett-Packard. The local Byte shop is marking their Apple disks at $50/10 which seems to correspond to the prices charged by a number of other local outlets. --Rick