[net.micro] 1541 @: command revisited

PHORWITZ@BBNG.ARPA (08/02/84)

A recent note to info-micro prompts me to send this one.  There
has been a lot of discussion of late on the infamous
save-and-replace bug on the 1541 drive.  It is claimed that this
bug can randomly trash, not the file you are working on, but some
innocent bystander file that just happened to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time.

All this talk has made me very nervous, needless to say, and I
have taken to scratching files "by hand" before saving.
Nonetheless, I confess that prior to all the dire reports I had
never experienced any problems with @:save, nor, to my knowledge,
have any of my friends or associates.

An obvious question arises: are the NEWER 1541's immune to @:
disease?  Are we all going around posting "May this House be Safe
from Tigers" signs, and then congratulating ourselves on their
absence?

I do not for an instant question the validity of the phenomenon
in general.  There is abundant evidence to support the veracity
and competence of those who have reported it.  But I am not (yet)
convinced that it afflicts us all, and I wish that I were
sufficiently sure of myself to risk losing several hours of work.

Is there anyone out there who can report sighting tigers on a
1541 drive of recent (<1 year) vintage?

Paul