punia@uvm-gen.UUCP (David T. Punia) (03/15/85)
We are about to make a significant diskette purchase and I thought
I'd try to collect some data from the net on diskette reliability. I find
that from any given distributor, diskettes prices vary 30 percent or more
depending on the manufacturer. What I'd like to determine is what that
extra 30 percent might be buying me. Is a Dysan really that much more
reliable than a 3M? These all seem to be well-known manufacturers of
magnetic media products in general, so what makes one better than the
next?
Some of these questions are intended to help me sort out data that
might not be valid in my survey. If you are having diskette failures because
you are using single density diskettes in a double density drive, I have
no sympathy for you or use for your information. On the other hand, I have
used some HP diskettes that were marked SD in a Rainbow "quad" density
drive for almost two years of light (a few hours/week) use without a failure.
Someone's losing money on those! Nonetheless, that's not an economy move I'm
seriously considering.
So, what I ask of you net readers is the following:
1.) What brand of diskettes are you currently using?
2.) How long do you use a given diskette? (Months? Years? 'Til it dies?)
a.) Is your application disk intensive?
b.) How many hours/day or week?
3.) Have you had (m)any diskette failures?
a.) Fresh out of the box or after use? (How much use?)
b.) Did it fail in the drive it was usually used in?
c.) How careful are you about diskette care? (Honestly!)
d.) Are you using the "right" diskette for your drive?
4.) Are your drives single or double density?
I would welcome readers' comments on the survey and anything that
might help make it better. I will post results to the net after a few
weeks. I need to hear from those who have found good reliablilty as well
as from those who've had problems.
--
David T. Punia, Engineering Specialist, Univ. of Vermont CS/EE dept.
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