levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) (11/17/88)
I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus,
Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of
25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50
disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet
or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question:
anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their
products? This price is good till the end of December.
/JBL
Disclaimer: this is a query about a bargain priced product. I have no
connection or experience with this company.
UUCP: {backbone}!bbn!levin POTS: (617) 873-3463
INTERNET: levin@bbn.comsage@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Martosko '91) (11/17/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of >25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 >disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet >or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: >anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >products? This price is good till the end of December. Well, I don't know anything about their Mac disks, but I do know that they "roll their own." Years ago when the Apple II was the thing to have, I bought 100 DS/DD (5 1/4") disks from them. 15 in all never formatted. Sure, they were cheap (35 cents apiece). You get what you pay for. =============================================================================== DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are mine! All MINE!!! *heh* David Martosko E-mail:sage@eleazar.dartmouth.EDU Dartmouth College HB 2216 Phone:(603) 640-4753 Hanover, NH 03755
zeke@eta.unix.ETA.COM (Robert K. Scott) (11/17/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM>, levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) writes: > I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, > Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of > 25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 > disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet > or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: > anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their > products? This price is good till the end of December. > Our Personal Computer user group here at work has bought the MEI Micro 5.25" disks, and has found them quite inexpensive and satisfactory. However, these were Mess-DOS disks, and there is quite a significant difference between 360K (really) floppies and the 3.5" 800K floppies. Our Mac/Amiga/Atari users have pooled together and consistently bought Sony disks, both the boxed ones and the unlabeled bulk pack ones. We have had only 1 failure in perhaps 3000 disks that have been bought, all for an average price of $1.60 per disk. The failure, BTW, turned out to be questionable alignment of some disk heads, not the disk. Other users at my company have bought other brands of 3.5" disks, and the results have been significantly less reliable. We even had some Kodak disks that got garbaged while write locked. Summary: Some people will swear by generic or bargain brand diskettes. However, my experiences indicate that if you value your data, you may want to consider seriously the tradeoff between inexpensive disks and the frustration of losing valuable information. I, and most of my collegues here, buy Sony disks and trust none other for serious work. -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From the Final Frontier %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% These are my opinions, of course. Why the hell would my company want them? Robert K. "Zeke" Scott internet: zeke@sunfun.eta.com voice: (612) 642-3493 uucp: {amdahl,rutgers}!bungia!eta!sunfun!zeke snail: ETA Systems, Inc. ETC03J, 1450 Energy Park Drive, St. Paul, MN 55108
nghiem@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem) (11/17/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM>, levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) writes: > I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, > Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of > 25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 > disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet > or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: > anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their > products? This price is good till the end of December. I have not used MEI's bulk 3.5" disks, and I do not intend too. I have used the company's bulk 5.25" disks--they do not last. They format okay, but over time they develop read errors. Since it appears that the magnetic media deterioates over time, MEI's bulk diskettes appear to be unsuitable for even archival copies. MEI does advertise bargain prices for bulk name brand diskettes, such as SONY and FUJI. I've never had a read problem with a SONY, and only a few problems with older (non-colored jacket) FUJI's. I think FUJI has since changed their media formulation for their new colored diskettes. I have not had a read error with FUJI color diskettes. I think you would save yourself from lot's of headaches if you would spend a little more for the SONY's or the FUJI's. !cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!nghiem nghiem@emx.utexas.edu "Why?...because we LIKE you!!!" = Disclaimer for those who need it: I post this article for factual information only. Any misrepresentation, if any, is purely unintentional. Any opinion expressed or otherwise implicit in these remarks are solely mine.
lauac@qal.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (11/17/88)
>In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >>I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >>Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of >>25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 >>disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet >>or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: >>anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >>products? This price is good till the end of December. Well, I ordered my disks a week and a half ago, and I haven't gotten them yet. They promised to get them to me here in Berkeley, CA within two weeks by UPS Ground. I'll let y'all know whenever I get them in, and I'll let you know how many of them are actually formattable. ---Alex (my OWN account now!) filler filler filler
elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (11/17/88)
in article <10949@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, sage@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (David Martosko '91) says: > Xref: killer comp.sys.mac:25432 comp.sys.amiga:26630 > > In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >>I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >>Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of Good price, but quality seems to be sketchy. One batch of disks will format fine, the next one will have a half-dozen that won't format, even. >>products? This price is good till the end of December. They say "this price is good only till xxx" so that they don't get into legal hassles in the event someone picks up an old sales flyer. In actuality, that is their regular price. But if it's past xxx, they may have raised it (unlikely) or lowered it (more likely). > they "roll their own." Years ago when the Apple II was the thing to have, I suspect they simply buy lots from the lowest bidder. > You get what you pay for Amen. If you have need for bulk disks for some reason, perhaps to archive netnews or some other bulk data you really don't care about ;-), get some. If you have data you care about, get Sonys. -- Eric Lee Green ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509
arxt@sphinx.uchicago.edu (patrick palmer) (11/17/88)
>I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >Ohio.... >.... My question: >anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >products? This price is good till the end of December. MY experience with the MEI disks is that they are unreliable, at least over the long (maybe not all that long) haul. I bought 50 from them last summer. Seven would not format, so I returned them and they promptly replaced them. By now 12 more have failed - including 2 of the replacements. (I exercised them on two Amigas and on an Amiga belonging to a friend - there is no pattern indicating drive problems. Most decisively, none of the 40 or so Sony DSDD disks that I have have ever failed.) I now wish I had paid twice as much and got disks that I could trust. When you have to think about making 2 backup copies instead of one, the cost difference disappears. Needless to say, the aggravation factor from read-write errors during long downloads or backups is not negligible either. I should emphasize that the company did do what they said they would, and maybe I was just unlucky in the 2 batches of disks that I got samples from. I will be interested to hear what others experience is.
joel@arizona.edu (Joel Snyder) (11/17/88)
We also have experience with MEI diskettes which is similar---they are cheap, and you get what you pay for. Although this isn't exactly true. They cost us (in quantity 500) about half as much as Sonys, yet are not half as reliable. In fact, I would never trust those diskettes with anything of MINE, but I am happy to hand them out to our users who are always warned: "This is not that good a diskette. Take two, and make backups." Users who have real data they're really concerned with usually give them back and buy their own Sonys (or whatever); users who just need something to port from a PC on *this* side of the room to *that* side of the room take them gladly, since we couldn't afford to give out the good ones as freely. In an environment like ours, floppies flow like water, and MEI makes a good alternative to higher-priced vendors. We have used their 3.5 and 5 inch products. Not great, but we'd rather have a one year supply than a six month supply (for the same price), especially when we know that six months later there's no money to buy another six month supply. jms
pgn@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu (Paul G. Nevai) (11/17/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of >25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 >disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet >or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: >anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >products? This price is good till the end of December. > > /JBL > >Disclaimer: this is a query about a bargain priced product. I have no >connection or experience with this company. > >UUCP: {backbone}!bbn!levin POTS: (617) 873-3463 >INTERNET: levin@bbn.com I live in Columbus and I've ben a customer of MicroCenter for five years. I am VERY SATISFIED. They are the best Mac dealer in town and give a nice discount to Ohio State custumers on top of their fairly discounted prices. As far as their diskd go, I've bought more than 500 of their disks over the years and had a failure rate which is negligible (1 or 2). I have no idea who makes their disks but I am sure that they vary their manufacturers depending the best deal available. Righ now they sell colored SONY DS-DD disk (unboxed) for about $1.15 each. The $.85 disks should be OK. Don't buy the labels!!! Buy the 5.25" disk labels, they are much better for the 3.5" disks. One final word: MicroCenter has a 30 days money back satisfaction guarantee and they mean it. Once I ordered a SuperMac tape drive and bought a lots of cartridges. As all of us know SuperMac didn't ship for more than 8 months so I got sick of waiting and cancelled my order. Than after 8 months I returned my unused cartridges and I got my money back! Disclaimer. I am the owner of MicroCenter (just kidding). Have Orthogonal Polynomials Will Travel Paul Nevai pgn@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu Department of Mathematics TS1171@ohstvma.BITNET The Ohio State University 73057,172.Compu$erve 231 West Eighteenth Avenue 1-(614)-292-5310.office Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A. 1-(614)-292-4975.department
prince@maui.cs.ucla.edu (Larry Prince) (11/18/88)
Just a footnote: "Lifetime guarantee" doesn't mean "these disks won't
fail..." -- it means "we'll replace them when they do."
Caveat Emptor.
UCLA Computer Science Department
-- Larry 3413 Boelter Hall Los Angeles 90024 (213) 825-2145
Prince UUCP: {ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!prince
ARPAnet: prince@CS.UCLA.EDUgeb@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Gordon E. Banks) (11/18/88)
I ordered 50 of the MEI 3 inch disks, and have formatted about half of them (double sided) now without a hitch.
nor1675@dsacg2.UUCP (Michael Figg) (11/18/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM>, levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) writes: > I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, > Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of > 25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 > disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet > or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: > anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their > products? This price is good till the end of December. > Since I live in Columbus, I have been using MicroCenter's disks since I got my first Amy back in March of '86. They used to be dependable but now seem unreliable. Apparently MicroCenter does buy from whomever gives them the best deal at the time. Fortunately I can usually find Sony's or Maxell's in a box at wholsale type outlet centers for approx. $17.00/box. It doesn't seem worth the gamble to go the MicroCenter route and drive across town to exchange them. -- "Better graphics with crayons" Michael Figg DLA Systems Automation Center Columbus, Oh. (614)-238-9036
tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R. Johnson) (11/18/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of >25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 >disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet >or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: >anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >products? This price is good till the end of December. > > /JBL I have bought about 150 of these disks. Since I live in Columbus, I just go to their store and pick up a batch whenever I need them. I can't be sure that these are the same ones that you get if you go through mail order, but it sounds like they are. So far I have only had 1 or 2 go bad. I heard from others that Microcenter had a bad batch a while ago. Apparently they have switched manufacturers and claim to have fixed the problem. I'm about half way through a box of 50 I purchased a month ago. So far not a single disk has been bad. ---Todd tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu -- ---Todd tj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
mpsimon@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (M. Patrick Simon) (11/18/88)
I recently bought 50 disks from them. So far I have used about 15 of them, and I have had write errors on 4 of the disks. Needless to say I am keeping 3 copies of everything. --Patrick Simon mpsimon@phoenix.princeton.edu 11-17-88
lauac@qal.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (11/18/88)
I just got the disks by UPS Ground today, 11 days after they said it would arrive "within two weeks". I haven't had a chance to format them all (I do most of my formatting in advance, since it's better than wasting time when you actually NEED the disk), but the test disk that I formatted and ran some tests on has had no problems. I will report any problems to the proper net.authorities... --- Alex
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (11/18/88)
In article <32406@bbn.COM> levin@BBN.COM (Joel B Levin) writes: >I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, >Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of >25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 >disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet >or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: >anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their >products? This price is good till the end of December. > > /JBL I asked the same question about a month ago. One person responded to the "brand" saying that a friend had found an unacceptable number of bad ones. Others said they wouldn't take a chance with their data. Even if the diskette initializes, it can fail when you need it on a restore. I ordered KAO diskettes (at $1.09 in quantities of 400) instead. This was from USA*FLEX. I ordered 100 from them previously (at 1.14 per) and also bought the labels at 4 cents each. Shipping charge was $4.00. This time when I ordered, the shipping charge was $10.00. I started to back out of the order, but since I was ordering for two people I said OK. Then I found other people to buy enough to get us up to the 400+ price which took the sting out of the shipping charge. On the first order, they shorted me on the labels (by 22 labels) but they quickly sent another 25 labels when I complained. I certainly can't endorse the shipping charge since they don't state it in their ad and it significantly increases the cost of the diskettes. But if you can gather three other friends who want 100, you not only get the price break but this brings the shipping down to $2.50 apiece. Because of the recent posting about the possible embargo on diskettes, I thought I'd be prepared for a price hike. Shirley Kehr
root@yale.UUCP (Celray Stalk) (11/18/88)
I've dealt with MEI a couple of times, but only for 5.25" disks. They have been great so far, with fast shipments and delivery of high quality disks. I haven't had any of their disks go bad so I don't know how good they are about honoring their warrantee. I personally wouldn't hesitate to order from them. The only problem is that sometimes I can't wait until I need 50 disks to buy disks, so I end up buying 10 from a local store for more money. Finding friends and ordering a bunch of disks is a nice way to go though. --Peter ------------------------------------------ -------------------------------- Peter Baer Galvin (203)432-1254 Senior Systems Programmer, Yale Univ. C.S. galvin-peter@cs.yale.edu 51 Prospect St, P.O.Box 2158, Yale Station ucbvax!decvax!yale!galvin-peter New Haven, Ct 06457 galvin-peter@yalecs.bitnet
srp@modcomp.UUCP (Steve Pietrowicz) (11/19/88)
in article <32406@bbn.COM>, levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) says: > I just got a flyer in the mail from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, > Ohio. They are advertising 3.5" diskettes at $.85 each (in lots of > 25; shipping $.50 and labels at $1.50 for 50 -- this amounts to 50 > disks for $45 complete). They claim diskettes are certified to meet > or exceed ANSI standards and have "Lifetime Warranty". My question: > anyone heard of these guys or have any experience with them or their > products? This price is good till the end of December. Yup, I've heard of them. I've got 50 of those disks. I've had no problems with those or any of the disks I've ever gotten from MEI. Great prices, huh? :-) Steve --- Steve Pietrowicz ...!uunet!modcomp!srp
nor1675@dsacg2.UUCP (Michael Figg) (11/19/88)
(garbage) In article <18027@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, prince@maui.cs.ucla.edu (Larry Prince) writes: > Just a footnote: "Lifetime guarantee" doesn't mean "these disks won't > fail..." -- it means "we'll replace them when they do." > It also means you get your disk back but not your data! I don't think it is worth the risk with their recent record.
snow@ndmath.UUCP (Dennis Snow) (11/19/88)
After reading several articles praising Sony disks, I thought I would pass along my 'statistics'. Out of 50 Sony disks I have used in the past two years I have had 3 of them develope read errors. One of these disks was only rarely used for archiving files. By way of contrast, none of my four year old original 400K Apple disks (used on the same machines) have ever gone bad. For all I know, the original Apple disks were made by Sony. But a 6% failure rate for my Sony disks does not strike me as reliable. Dennis Snow Department of Mathematics University of Notre Dame
dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) (11/20/88)
I've used MEI disks for a long time with very few problems. Perhaps 1 in 100 disks would fail, although I do remember some friends getting a particularly bad batch about a year ago. Disklaimer: I haven't purchased any disks in about 6 months. When I need disks, I go through a few Fish disks and get rid of the junk I don't need and put the junk I do need on fewer diskettes. I generally free up one disk for every two I clean p. Dan Hankins
ma3751bc@charon.unm.edu (ma3751bc) (11/22/88)
I have personally purchased over 1500 diskettes for the Albuquerque user group.
Out of that, about 10 have been returned. Not a bad 'track' record. ;-)
Most of my stuff is on generic diskettes, with my real important stuff remaining
on Sony. When money is really tight, I gamble and use single-sided with little
problem.
Suggestion: Try them, if you are not satisfied, get a name-brand.
--jeff sauerpgn@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu (Paul G. Nevai) (11/22/88)
In article <11498@cup.portal.com> dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) writes: >I've used MEI disks for a long time with very few problems. Perhaps 1 in >100 disks would fail, although I do remember some friends getting a >particularly bad batch about a year ago. > >disks, I go through a few Fish disks and get rid of the junk I don't need I've purchased a lots of disks from MicroCenter and they were quite good. Paul Nevai pgn@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu Department of Mathematics TS1171@ohstvma.BITNET The Ohio State University 73057,172.Compu$erve 231 West Eighteenth Avenue 1-(614)-292-5310.office Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A. 1-(614)-292-4975.department
lauac@qal.qal.berkeley.edu (Alexander Lau) (11/22/88)
After a marathon formatting session, all 51 (yes, they inadvertently gave me an extra disk for free!) disks formatted without a hitch. These, of course, are the disks from MEI/Micro Center of Columbus, Ohio. Further status reports if needed; so far, this batch seems to be pretty good. --- Alex (on my OWN account again!)
freaky@pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu (dave a. halper) (11/24/88)
They do me just fine for archival purposes (Fish disks, etc.) I got 100 and 4-5 did not format. Of the others, 2 got corrupted, but it wasn't too big a pain because they didn't contain anything I need...yet. Freaky Dave.