[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Question about 3" DD, HD disks

ftrue@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Dr. Destruction) (02/06/89)

For those of you out there with a 1.4 meg 3" drive, I have a question
for you. I am running a PS/2-60 with a 1.4meg 3" drive, and when I first
got the system, I faithfully used "HD" disks when formatting for 1.4megs.
Later, after getting some DSDD disks for free, I accidentally formatted
them for 1.4meg. Well, what I expected was a lot of data errors, or 
at least degradation after a period of time.

Well to make a long story short, I've been formatting DSDD disks for
1.4megs for about 1 year now, and reading/writing them WITHOUT ERROR since
then. The price, by the way, of HD disks GREATLY overshadows the price
of DSDD disks, otherwise I'd just spend a little extra for peace of mind.
But, alas I haven't gotten one measly error, and the savings on disks 
is enough to make any college student happeee. So: although I have all my
important stuff backed up on HD, is there any reason to worry about
using DSDD for HD most of the time? Remember, NOT ONE ERROR in about 
a year!!!

_____________________________________________________________________________
Frederick True                 ftrue@jarthur.UUCP
Harvey Mudd College	       ftrue@hmcvax.BITNET
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jim_d@cimcor.mn.org (Jim Dahlberg) (02/10/89)

In article <170@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>, ftrue@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Dr. Destruction) writes:
...
> Well to make a long story short, I've been formatting DSDD disks for
> 1.4megs for about 1 year now, and reading/writing them WITHOUT ERROR since
> then. ...

I have tried this with some BASF disks & have lost some data on them by
doing it.

So what brand disks are you using?  You must tell me! :-)

    Jim Dahlberg
    Internet: jim_d@cimcor.mn.org
    UUCP:     uunet!rosevax!cimcor!jim_d
    UUCP:     orbit!pnet51!jad

hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (02/15/89)

In article <170@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> ftrue@jarthur.UUCP (Dr. Destruction) writes:
}Well to make a long story short, I've been formatting DSDD disks for
}1.4megs for about 1 year now, and reading/writing them WITHOUT ERROR since
}then. ...                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

But are they _formatted_ without error?  The times I've done this, I've
invariably ended up with a lot of bad sectors on the disk.  The remaining
sectors work ok and can be written and read without error, but a lot of
disk capacity is lost.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimati Nil
Citicorp(+)TTI                                                 Carborundum
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 452-9191, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe