glenn@cs.utexas.edu (Gwangwu Lai) (02/14/90)
Be careful when you go shopping for cheap "1.44M" disks. I saw an ad in the _Computer Shoper_ from the following company (SALE OF THE CENTURY) ERM Inc./Electronic Liquidators 37 Washington St. 4th Floor Melrose, MA 02176 In the ad it's claimed that "Unlike our competitors, sleeves and labels always free." Well, 1.44M disks don't come with sleeves, and I recently found that it costs only $1.5 for a pack of 50 labels in assorted colors (I got one white label for each disk I purchased). In a fine print, it says "Disks may be bulk erased." Well, all of my 100 disks are bulk erased, each with a key tronic mouse 1.0 label. I bought 100 DS/HD disks for 169 dollars, which included shipping and handling. The add said it's 159 dollars for a quantity of 100. When I called, the salesman told me it would cost approximately 200. I said that's not what the ad said. He asked me what magazine I was looking at and, after being told that it was _Computer Shopper_, said that their price list was in the "back room." So what's the problem? All 100 disks are unmistakably DS/DD disks with a hole punched in the upper left-hand corner by a machine and passed off as "DS/HD" disks.! I consider it a cheat to advertise such disks as "DS/HD" disks (technically speaking, DS/DD disks got a lower coercivity than DS/HD ones do). (What do you think when you buy a "24Mhz" 386 machine, only to find out that it actually runs at 16Mhz, and the "24Mhz" is the "effective throughput" measured by a program, say Norton's Utilities?) I don't know if I can bring this to court, but look out for this company when you purchase your "DS/HD" disks (if you really want to use DS/DD disks as DS/HD disks, buy the DS/DD disks at 59 cents a piece and get a 30- or 40-buck punching machine yourself). Glenn
harper@convex.com (David Harper) (02/14/90)
In article <5@libyan.cs.utexas.edu> glenn@cs.utexas.edu (Gwangwu Lai) writes: > >Be careful when you go shopping for cheap "1.44M" disks. <description of Computer Shopper ad deleted> > >I bought 100 DS/HD disks for 169 dollars, which included shipping and >handling. >All 100 disks are unmistakably DS/DD disks with a hole punched in the >upper left-hand corner by a machine and passed off as "DS/HD" disks.! <rest of ripoff description deleted> Actually, this is not even that great of a price for real DS/HD disks as prices on them have come down a lot. The latest catalog from MEI/Micro Center (800-634-3478) lists 3.5" DS/HD disks for $22.25 in lots of 25 ($0.89 ea). These are described as 2 MB unformatted diskettes which is what you need for 1.44 MB formatted capacity. I have not tried these yet (I intend to) but I have purchased their 5.25" diskettes in the past (several times) and I have always been happy with both the quality and the promptness of delivery. Dave Harper - Convex Computer Corp. E-mail address: 3000 Waterview Pky. Richardson, TX 75081 harper@convex.COM (214) 497-4525 (W) (214) 727-4206 (H)
canders@plains.UUCP (Carlin Anderson) (02/14/90)
-------- With respect to all those who have either purchased or contemplated purchasing a disk puncher to transform those inexpensive DS/DD 3.5's, my advice is to forget them. I purchased two different models, and had nothing but trouble. Both wanted to shatter the corners of the disks, and that was nor acceptable. These disks, by the way, were from MEI/Micro. Well, after ruining about 2 dozen disks this way, I tried something else: I put an old pencil tip element on my soldering iron, and using a bad HD disk as a guide, melted the extra sense hole in. Using this method, I have converted close to 100 disks, and only 1 has failed to format, when using virgin disks. If you try this with a prefiously formatted disk, there is a high probability that the format will fail. Of those formatted, only 2 have failed within the last year, but there have been about 10 which have developed or formatted with bad sectors, usually about 10k worth. If you don't want to bother with this, MEI/Micro now has HD disks available for discount, something like $.89 each/qty's of 25. Carlin Anderson North Dakota State University Fargo, ND 58105 UUCP: ...!uunet!plains!canders BITNET: canders@plains.bitnet INTERNET: canders@plains.NoDak.edu nu111783@vm1.NoDak.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ce1zzes@prism.gatech.EDU (Eric Sheppard) (02/16/90)
In article <3424@plains.UUCP>, canders@plains.UUCP (Carlin Anderson) writes: > If you don't want to bother with this, MEI/Micro now has HD disks > available for discount, something like $.89 each/qty's of 25. > Apparently, that is turning out to be an incredibly hot seller. My order placed last week has been back-ordered for approximately 3-4 WEEKS! Good luck... Eric, tinkerer-at-large -- Eric Sheppard Georgia Tech | "Of course the US Constitution isn't Atlanta, GA | perfect; but it's a lot better than what ARPA: ce1zzes@prism.gatech.edu | we have now." uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!ce1zzes