charles@hpcvca.HP (Charles Brown) (12/24/87)
When I first started using the A1000, I noticed about 1 in 10 disks failed. Generally these were the generic disks PiM sends Fish disks on, however I also had one of my Fuji floppys fail. Since I had heard (here) many recommendations for Sony floppys, I search about this cow town until I found the only supplier with real Sonys with Sony labels in a Sony box. (Several had floppys they claimed were made by Sony, but with their own Logo.) I was aghast when 3 out of the 10 failed. In disgust, I went back to buying only Fuji. I now have about 150 Fuji disks. Still, only one of them has failed. Charles Brown hp-pcd!charles The opinions expressed here do not represent those of my employer.
jca@homxc.UUCP (J.ANTROSIGLIO) (01/12/88)
In article <4410016@hpcvca.HP>, charles@hpcvca.HP (Charles Brown) writes: > When I first started using the A1000, I noticed about 1 in 10 > disks failed. Generally these were the generic disks PiM sends > Fish disks on, however I also had one of my Fuji floppys fail. > Since I had heard (here) many recommendations for Sony floppys, > I search about this cow town until I found the only supplier > with real Sonys with Sony labels in a Sony box. (Several had > floppys they claimed were made by Sony, but with their own Logo.) > I was aghast when 3 out of the 10 failed. In disgust, I went > back to buying only Fuji. I now have about 150 Fuji disks. > Still, only one of them has failed. > Charles Brown hp-pcd!charles > > The opinions expressed here do not represent those of my employer. I've been using Maxell disks for the past three years and have had good luck with them. Out of ~300 3-1/2 disk I remember only two bad ones. I've also had the same experience with their 5-1/2 disk on my PC clone. -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ John C. Antrosiglio AT&T Bell Laboratories Holmdel, New Jersey 07733 (201)949-2374 ihnp4!{homxc|hotlf|hotld}!jca
haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) (01/13/88)
Seems this topic comes up regularly. Ok I'll byte. Only takes
a little Bandwidth and we might spot some trends....
Maxell has been good for me. I have about 8 of these, and one
is the boot disk I've been using for 5 months.
Of course, I have these grey disks which are only about 50 cents
each and very few of them have failed either. I have a couple of "CH" disks
which are suprising more durable than the others, the plastic is much more
solid. Not enough data on these yet, but none have failed.
In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think,
by Leo in the past,
Best - Blue
2nd - Grey
3rd - Black (generally un-reliable)
which, of course makes little or no sence but????
Wade.
UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!haitex
ARPA: crash!pnet01!haitex@nosc.mil
INET: haitex@pnet01.CTS.COMflaig@cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Charles M. Flaig) (01/14/88)
[Eat this!] In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: > > In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >by Leo in the past, > > Best - Blue > 2nd - Grey > 3rd - Black (generally un-reliable) > >which, of course makes little or no sence but???? Of course, I have about 30 or 40 black disks, and have only had one failure. And (for reasons I won't go into) I suspect that failure may have been the result of human error. It seems that you just take your chances when you buy bulk unmarked disks, since even different orders from the same company seem to return disks of different quality. Maybe the same is true of marked disks..... --Charles Flaig flaig@cit-vlsi.caltech.edu
flaig@cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Charles M. Flaig) (01/14/88)
[...and this!] Then too, there's the Disk That Wouldn't Die. It's gray, and I think it might have been a Sony. I used it some years back to store some data files from a Mac that I used at school. Then I stopped using it and it got buried. I mean really buried. Maybe two years later I picked it up off the floor from under a bench where it had been liberally coated with dust and grime, and no doubt subjected to other abuse such as having things piled on top of it. Well, I once again had a use for some of the data files, so I cleaned it up, popped it in the Mac, and it worked perfectly! I hope my current boot disk is that reliable.... --Charles Flaig flaig@cit-vlsi.caltech.edu
web@PRC.Unisys.COM (William E. Byrd) (01/14/88)
I have had my A1000 w/1 external since May 86. I have in use 20 Sonys
30 Maxells, and 10 Fujis. I have had no failures to date.
--
Bill Byrd: UUCP {seismo|sdcrdcf|psuvax ...}!burdvax!web
Unisys Defense Systems (formerly: SDC/a Burroughs Company) is not responsible
... for my opinions.soo@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Chong L Soo) (01/14/88)
In article <5243@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> web@PRC.Unisys.COM (William E. Byrd) writes: >I have had my A1000 w/1 external since May 86. I have in use 20 Sonys >30 Maxells, and 10 Fujis. I have had no failures to date. I have 30 TDKs, 50 bulk Sonys, and 50 boxed-in-10 Sonys. Some of these have been around for two years now and not a single failure. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chong Soo (Amiga nut) soo@beach.cis.ufl.edu ARPANET/INTERNET soo%ufcsg.ufl.edu@relay.cs.net BITNET soo%ufcsg.ufl.edu%relay.cs.net@wiscvm
schein@cbmvax.UUCP (Dan Schein CATS) (01/15/88)
In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: > > Of course, I have these grey disks which are only about 50 cents >each and very few of them have failed either. I have a couple of "CH" disks Where are you buying disks for .50? I think the local users group would be interested in this information. > In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >by Leo in the past, > > Best - Blue > 2nd - Grey > 3rd - Black (generally un-reliable) > I know that I also subscribe to the color theory, but mine seems a tad different from yours. Mine is: Best - Black 2nd - Blue w/Made in Japan stamped in that oval on the back of the disk Worst - Blue w/No Made in Japan on the back No comment on Grey - I hardley ever get one to use :-() >which, of course makes little or no sence but???? > > > Wade. -- Dan Schein uucp: {ihnp4|allegra|burdvax|rutgers}!cbmvax!schein Commodore AMIGA ARPANET: cbmvax!schein@uunet.uu.net 1200 Wilson Drive Bix: dschein Plink: Dan*CATS West Chester PA 19380 phone: (215) 431-9100 ext. 9542 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ All spelling mistakes are a result of my efforts to avoid education :-) +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ I help Commodore by supporting the AMIGA. Commodore supports me by allowing me to form my own suggestions and comments.
ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (01/15/88)
In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: > In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >by Leo in the past, [ ... ] which, of course makes little or no sence but???? > As I recall, my heirarchy went like this: 1: Blue 2: White 3: Black 4: Tan MAXINT: Verbatim/Datalife Some have suggested that BASF should be at MAXINT-1, but I have no experience with those. BTW, ints for this application are 64 bits, unsigned. Whatever happened to Wabash? _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape ihnp4!ptsfa -\ \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) (01/15/88)
In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: [ about reliable disks ] > In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >by Leo in the past, That was me with the "colour theory", casting Blue disks as heroes and Tan disks as villains. > Best - Blue The "made in Japan" vs "made in USA" idea appears to be right. I've encountered no-name or made-in-USA blue disks that looked just like Sony's but which had defective media. > 2nd - Grey I like Polaroid disks the best now, but have very few of them. Also that "permanent label" makes me afraid to write on it since I may want to erase it later on. I'm also amazed by how poor Dysan disks are, especially since many profs only allow students to use selected brands of disks for use in the engineering PC's and they all think Dysan is God (I'm not sure if engineering has moved into 3.5" disks yet). John -- "The day-to-day travails of the IBM programmer are so amusing to those of us who are fortunate enough never to have been one -- sort of like watching Charlie Chaplin trying to cook a shoe." -- the new and improved Fortune database
derick@garfield.UUCP (Derick Linegar) (01/15/88)
In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: [ ... deleted stuff ... ] > In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >by Leo in the past, > > Best - Blue > 2nd - Grey > 3rd - Black (generally un-reliable) > >which, of course makes little or no sence but???? > Wade. >UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!haitex >ARPA: crash!pnet01!haitex@nosc.mil >INET: haitex@pnet01.CTS.COM hmmm, I think that the color theory doesn't really work anymore for a copla reasons. First disk quality is up since more and more competition forces quality/discounts. Also there are a lot more disk manufactures around producing disk of all colors in the rainbow. Look at the KAO disks. I now think that the company that produces the disk has more meaning in the choice of a disk than previously. Besides it makes me think that Blue disk come from Big Blue. :-) derick@garfield.UUCP
pes@bath63.UUCP (01/15/88)
Colour theory makes sense if you subscribe to the cynical theory that none of these folks actually *make* disks, but rather put their own labels on disks made by disk-making factories run by God-knows-who. University of Bristol use Maxell's for 3 inch disks; and 3M for 3.5 and 5.25 inch disks. Very high rate of success, and we use them by the thousands (at least). A few other **brand** names slip in from time to time. Our experience is that unbranded disks are likely to be disasterous -- the more so, the more their price sits below the 'brand' names. (In fact, there appears to be a pretty good correlation between price and quality, in our experience.) At the very least, buy top quality disks for your backup copies of things. (You DO keep backups, no?) (Just noticed one problem with the colour theory, to wit, that Sony disks (which initiated this chain) are BLUE, at least over here.)
cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (01/16/88)
In article <4382@garfield.UUCP> john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) writes: >I'm also amazed by how poor Dysan disks are, especially since many profs only >allow students to use selected brands of disks for use in the engineering >PC's and they all think Dysan is God (I'm not sure if engineering has moved >into 3.5" disks yet). Back in the days when I owned an Apple //e, I used to use the 5.25" Dysans. They were actually pretty good--seemed to be slightly more reliable than the Maxell disks I owned. When I replaced the //e with a Mac, I bought a bunch of 3.5" DS DD Dysans, expecting them to also be reliable. Boy, what a mistake that was! I've used several different batches, some maroon colored, some ivory colored, some made in the US, some with no identification. In the past 2 years, I've been having about a 20% failure rate. They initialize OK, but dig them out of storage after 8 months, and often sectors have gone bad, and the disk must be reinitialized. Sometimes you can't even do that much. In contrast, I've only seen 1 or 2 Apple brand disks, Sony's and Memorex disks die. So far, no problems with Verbatim, and I'm going to try Nashua next.
cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (Wilson Cheung) (01/17/88)
The disk media of SONYs are top rate. I've had one or two read write errors on Fuji and BASF disks but none on the SONYs. However, the disk encasing is really becoming flimsy. Out of the last 30 genuine labled Sony disks about 6 have given be problems because the sony disks were either knocked too far off center or developing excessive rotating friction. Generally I have to pop out the offending disk and manually rotate it back into alignment. Two have gone so far out of alignment they had to be retired. From inspection it seems inevitable that all 30 of these disks will go bad after some usage. I've compared these newer Sonys to older Sonys and they are definitely getting worse. Right now I've switched over to Maxells and have had no problems yet. Wilson Cheung .
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (01/18/88)
In article <5003@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: >> In general I subscribe to the color theory proposed, I think, >>by Leo in the past, [ ... ] which, of course makes little or no sence but???? >> > As I recall, my heirarchy went like this: > > 1: Blue > 2: White > 3: Black > 4: Tan > MAXINT: Verbatim/Datalife ^^^^^^ > > Some have suggested that BASF should be at MAXINT-1, but I have no >experience with those. BTW, ints for this application are 64 bits, unsigned. ^^ > What ever happened to Wabash ? need more bits -- "It's too dark to put the keys in my ignition" richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, philabs!cadovax, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richard
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (01/18/88)
line eater food: secret comsec satellite KH9 intercept russian Mike Wallace Gary Hart liberal sandanista I only have had one personal bad experience with 3-1/2 inch diskettes. Somebody mailed me some P/D stuff on a brownish-red Dysan disk. Before I could put it in the drive the two halves of the plastic housing fell apart. I was very glad that it fell apart before I stuck it in the drive. Recently we bought some ostensibly DS disks at work in bulk. What we received were not stamped "double sided" on the diskettes. We did experience some failures, so we returned the batch. The suspect disks were beige, and the big box they arrived in was marked "Fuji". --Bill
haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) (01/19/88)
Sorry, I said 50 cents, I guess its more like 85. I get them through
work and I don't know much more about it, except they said 60 disks ran 50
dollars.
Thanks,
Wade.
UUCP: {cbosgd, hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, nosc}!crash!pnet01!haitex
ARPA: crash!pnet01!haitex@nosc.mil
INET: haitex@pnet01.CTS.COMpeter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (01/22/88)
In article <2362@crash.cts.com>, haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: > by Leo in the past, > > 2nd - Grey > 3rd - Black (generally un-reliable) > I've found that most of my black disks are from OPUS, who do NOT have a good reputation. My red, yellow, pale blue, green, and so on fancy colored disks have all been good to me too. -- -- a clone of Peter (have you hugged your wolf today) da Silva `-_-' -- normally ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter U -- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
seven@nuchat.UUCP (David Paulsen) (01/23/88)
In article <4382@garfield.UUCP>, john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) writes: > In article <2362@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes: > > [ about reliable disks ] > > That was me with the "colour theory", casting Blue disks as heroes and Tan > disks as villains. > > The "made in Japan" vs "made in USA" idea appears to be right. In general, I find if I lubricate my disks before use that the bad data won't stick to them. A thick, double-sided coat of Crisco or WD-40 usually does the trick. Don't forget to check the oil filter in your Amiga every 10^12 mips! The only brawback I'm aware of is the tendency for the media to prematurely eject itself from the slot on occasion, accompanied by a disgusting slurping noise. -- David Paulsen - CHARTER MEMBER, WILLIAM WINDOM FAN CLUB ..uunet!nuchat!seven "Matt! Where's your crew??" "On the 3rd planet..." "There IS no 3rd planet." [pause] "Don't you think I know that?! There was, but NOT ANY MORE!!"