daver@hcx2.SSD.HARRIS.COM (01/17/88)
Having received a free Verbatim DataLifePlus Teflon-protected minidisk in the mail, I have the following concern before feeding it into the disk drive: How permanent is the Teflon coating? The Teflon on my cooking skillets has come off in places (probably through improper treatment). Will the same thing happen to the diskette and interfere with the operation of the read/write head? Granted, the head and the disk are never supposed to meet. Is data intregrity really higher as the manufacturer claims? Any positive or negative experiences with this innovation?
jfh@killer.UUCP (The Beach Bum) (01/18/88)
In article <36400002@hcx2>, daver@hcx2.SSD.HARRIS.COM writes: > Having received a free Verbatim DataLifePlus Teflon-protected minidisk in the > mail, I have the following concern before feeding it into the disk drive: > How permanent is the Teflon coating? Should be pretty permanent. > The Teflon on my cooking skillets has > come off in places (probably through improper treatment). Excess heat can cause this. Also thermal stress such as taking a hot skillet and dropping it in a sink full of cold water. This is not something you are likely to do with a floppy disk. > Will the same thing > happen to the diskette and interfere with the operation of the read/write > head? Not likely, the coating is most likely very thin. Under normal use, some dirt does build up on the disk surface and the inside of the sleeve keeps the cruft under control (btw - this is why you never use a single sided diskette on the other side by flipping it over. when the disk spins backwards the dirt can become dislogded) Whatever coating came off would be no worse that the regular run of the mill dirt. Possibly better. > Granted, the head and the disk are never supposed to meet. Wrong. On floppy disk drives the heads are loaded directly onto the media. You are thinking of hard disks where the heads float (so they say ;-) on a cushion of air. Coating the media with teflon is probably intended to reduce the friction between the head and media, and the resulting wear. > Is data intregrity > really higher as the manufacturer claims? Why? How high do they claim it to be? I have some 5 year old Verbatim 8" floppies that have never lost a bit. Buying quality diskettes will go a long way to improving data integrity. Also, tossing the disks after they develop errors, rather than reformatting 4 or 5 times until you get a clean format. (hint - write the format date on the original permanent label and only reformat once at most, and then, don't trust that disk for any important) - John. -- John F. Haugh II SNAIL: HECI Exploration Co. Inc. UUCP: ...!ihnp4!killer!jfh 11910 Greenville Ave, Suite 600 "Don't Have an Oil Well? ... Dallas, TX. 75243 ... Then Buy One!" (214) 231-0993 Ext 260
tainter@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Tainter) (01/19/88)
In article <36400002@hcx2>, daver@hcx2.SSD.HARRIS.COM writes: >Having received a free Verbatim DataLifePlus Teflon-protected >minidisk in the mail, I have the following concern before feeding >it into the disk drive: How permanent is the Teflon coating? >The Teflon on my cooking skillets has come off in places >(probably through improper treatment). Will the same thing >happen to the diskette and interfere with the operation of the >read/write head? >Granted, the head and the disk are never supposed to meet. Is >data intregrity really higher as the manufacturer claims? With hard disks the heads never meet the surface. With floppies the heads are actually pressed onto the surface. The medium on all floppies will slowly come off and accumulate on your head, if you start getting errors on your disks clean your head first before giving up on the floppy. Teflon should be better about this as it should have less friction. --j.a.tainter