[comp.sys.apple] 3.5" Disk reliability

TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA (11/26/87)

I've now had (two) GS's for somewhat over a year (one of them not quite
that long) and I seem to have had many more disks with disk errors than
I ever had on the five year old II+, even counting for the higher
capacity.  Are the 3.5's inherently less reliable or is it just me?  It
doesn't seem to matter which machine (the kids use mostly one, me the
other, and both have come up with "bad disk block" errors much more
frequently (like five or so in the last year) than is really tolerable.
I don't yet have any 3.5 ProDos disk utility other than what comes the
machine, so all I can do is run the sysutil verify program that doesn't
give you much information.

No real temperature extremes in the house (air-conditioned in the
summer) and I don't think there are any great magnetic sources nearby.
(How close would a box of disks have to get to, say, a modem powersupply
transformer?  -- thats about all I can think of.)

TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA

whitney@think.COM (David Whitney) (11/27/87)

In article <871126044602.102554@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.ARPA writes:
>I've now had (two) GS's for somewhat over a year (one of them not quite
>that long) and I seem to have had many more disks with disk errors than
>I ever had on the five year old II+, even counting for the higher
>capacity.  Are the 3.5's inherently less reliable or is it just me?

What kind of 3.5" disks are you using? I find that Sony disks are the best
and have actually had only two block errors in the past several years. You
want to be sure that you buy double-sided disks (that is, if it's actually
possible to buy single-sided disks any more).
David Whitney, MIT '90                     Still learning about my Apple //GS
{the known universe}!ihnp4!think!whitney   and all of its secrets. Any and all
whitney@think.com                          technical info appreciated.
DISCLAIMER: You didn't actually believe all that, did you?

halp@TCGOULD.TN.CORNELL.EDU.UUCP (11/30/87)

I have been using an Apple Unidisk 3.5 on each of three Apple ][e for about 
6 months, and also one on a ][c. I've never had any suggestion of unreliability.

****DISCLAMER: My comments, etc., are my own shakey opinions ********



  |  Bruce P. Halpern  Psychology & Neurobiology & Behavior Cornell Ithaca |
  |  ARPA: halp@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu                                     |
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blue@xroads.UUCP (Eddie Lin) (12/01/87)

I read somewhere that if you leave the plastic envelopes on your 3.5"
disks then static grows in them and ruins your disks...I don't have a 3.5"
drive but I know a friend that suddenly was loosing disks because of
this..Maybe this will help.

From:Crossroads(Phx.AZ)
Eddie
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