Ward_Travis@TRANSARC.COM (06/12/91)
Does anybody have any infomration on how long an ED floppy should last? The one that came with my system lasted for three trips to the office and back, and I'm bummed about that. The symptoms are that the disk will no longer initialize in my NeXTstation nor in a friend's. The disk had previously been initialized by a PS/2 system at 1.44MB (HD). I have not tried to format it again on other systems. When the system first arrived, I initialized the ED to 2.88 Mb density with no problems. Then I moved it down to 1.44Mb for use in hauling data back from the office. Does anyone have any suggestions? I haven't tried bulk-erasing it, will that accomplish anything? In terms of environment, it lived a sheltered life, always within its protective baggie and away from heat and moisture. I'm a little disappointed about this, and I'm hoping to hear that this is highly unusual. Takers? -wt
tempest@ecst.csuchico.edu (Kenneth K.F. Lui) (06/12/91)
[Ward Travis writes about an ED diskette not working anymore (cannot initialize). This was after a NeXTstation initialized it fine and a PS/2 with a 1.44MB drive initialized it.] My guess is because the diskette was re-initialized by the PS/2. You never say whether the diskette failed to initialize after the PS/2 formatted it or not. Remember ED disks use different magnetic formulation and in order to store more info, you need less signal so adjacent bits don't interfer with one another--so if you format with the "HD" setting from a PS/2, the signals used for that format will be greater than those used to format in the "ED" setting. You ain't never gonna overcome the stronger signal no matter how many times you format using an "ED" disk drive. Try using a bulk eraser as a last resort. Ken ______________________________________________________________________________ tempest@ecst.csuchico.edu, tempest@walleye.ecst.csuchico.edu,|Kenneth K.F. Lui| tempest@sutro.sfsu.edu, tempest@wet.UUCP |________________|