zkyj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (10/10/90)
Does anyone know if high density disks are inherently less reliable than regular double density floppies? I have heard rumors of a higher rate of failures, and have experienced some. Does the Apple Mac high-density floppy drive have trouble with HD disks of particular manufacturer? Will appreciate any responses in laymen's terms. Thanks.
kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu (Kenneth B. Kirksey) (10/11/90)
In article <1990Oct9.181925.327@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> zkyj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes: >Does anyone know if high density disks are inherently less reliable than >regular double density floppies? I have heard rumors of a higher rate of >failures, and have experienced some. Does the Apple Mac high-density floppy >drive have trouble with HD disks of particular manufacturer? Will appreciate >any responses in laymen's terms. Thanks. I have had a couple of hd floppies fail, but no more than DD. I did discover an interesting fact about hd floppies the hard way (though I don't know if this extends to all machines). I shuttle a lot of files back and forth between our sun sparcstations and my SE/30 on DOS formatted floppies. I ran out of mac hd floppies one night so I decided to reformat the Dos floppy to Mac. Well, I got that old initialization failed message. Ooops. Dead floppy I thought. I tried to reformat another, same deal. And they would not reformat back to dos floppies either. Totally screwed. And it works the same way in the other direction. I tried to dos format a mac formatted hd floppy on the suns. Invalid Media or track 0 bad error. I never tried using a big magnet on 'em to see if I could set them straight. Has anyone else had this problem? +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ / Ken Kirksey / "I have just a sufficient touch of \ / / genius to know that I am not a proper\ / "The Computer Engineer / genius - and I am not much interested in\ / From Hell" / second prize. In the meantime, I expect \ \ \ to have quit a lot of fun and do somewhat / \ Auburn University \ less constructive work than I might if / \ \ I tried as hard as I could." / \ kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu \ -ROBERT A. HEINLEIN / +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
marc@Apple.COM (Mark Dawson) (10/31/90)
In article <kkirksey.901010190106@lab12.eng.auburn.edu> kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu (Kenneth B. Kirksey) writes: >I have had a couple of hd floppies fail, but no more than DD. I did discover >an interesting fact about hd floppies the hard way (though I don't know if >this extends to all machines). I shuttle a lot of files back and forth >between our sun sparcstations and my SE/30 on DOS formatted floppies. I ran >out of mac hd floppies one night so I decided to reformat the Dos floppy to >Mac. Well, I got that old initialization failed message. Ooops. Dead >floppy I thought. I tried to reformat another, same deal. And they would >not reformat back to dos floppies either. Totally screwed. And it works >the same way in the other direction. I tried to dos format a mac formatted >hd floppy on the suns. Invalid Media or track 0 bad error. > I never tried using a big magnet on 'em to see if I could set them >straight. Has anyone else had this problem? Yes. When I worked for Kennect, writing their Rapport software, we had a big magnet that we used to "destroy" a disk--the Macs wouldn't format a MSDOS disk (720K). Mark -- --------------------------------- Mark Dawson Service Diagnostic Engineering AppleLink: Dawson.M Apple says what it says; I say what I say. We're different ---------------------------------
cmpeters@eos.ncsu.edu (C MAVERICK PETERSEN) (10/31/90)
In article <kkirksey.901010190106@lab12.eng.auburn.edu>, kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu (Kenneth B. Kirksey) writes: > I have had a couple of hd floppies fail, but no more than DD. I did discover > an interesting fact about hd floppies the hard way (though I don't know if > this extends to all machines). I shuttle a lot of files back and forth > between our sun sparcstations and my SE/30 on DOS formatted floppies. I ran > out of mac hd floppies one night so I decided to reformat the Dos floppy to > Mac. Well, I got that old initialization failed message. Ooops. Dead > floppy I thought. I tried to reformat another, same deal. And they would > not reformat back to dos floppies either. Totally screwed. And it works > the same way in the other direction. I tried to dos format a mac formatted > hd floppy on the suns. Invalid Media or track 0 bad error. Ahhemmm.... Trouble with HD diskettes? I'll say! I'm beginning to wonder if the SuperDrives are taking me on some SooperDives... I've had half a dozen HD disks go bad on me (just when I needed 'em, of course); and I am beginning to get tired of it. BTW, I've only had one or two DD disks go bad on me in 4 years! (and how long have this StoopidDrives been out?!?) > I never tried using a big magnet on 'em to see if I could set them > straight. Has anyone else had this problem? Well, I've never had enough patience to find a big magnet...most of my uncooperative disks get mutilated/disected as soon as they get ejected ("Initialization failed!") for the third time. > +------------------------ > / Ken Kirksey > / > / "The Computer Engineer > / From Hell" > \ > \ Auburn University > \ > \ kkirksey@eng.auburn.edu > +------------------------- > C. Maverick Petersen Hey, Support Greenpeace. "A Fellow Hellian (BSCPE/BSEE)" North Carolina State University mav@eceugs.ncsu.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somebody please send me to Colorado... I've gotta get away from Jesse Helms! -------------------------------------------------------------------------
hp48sx@wuarchive.wustl.edu (HP48SX Archive Maintainer) (10/31/90)
I also sometimes have problems reformatting MS-dos floppies on the mac, and also theother way around. When I need the disk very hard, then i put it up in front of my speaker, as close to the magnet as possible. Then it will almost always work again. But I am not sure if I can trust such disks, so until now I have been returning them to the shop when I have got the programs transfered to a "safe" disk. They just swap them without any problems. They gve a lifetime waranty, so there is no problem, and I even gets my stock of disks renewed once in a while. -- ******************************************************* Povl H. Pedersen hp48sx@wuarchive.wustl.edu HP48sx archive maintainer
bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) (11/01/90)
From article <46168@apple.Apple.COM>, by marc@Apple.COM (Mark Dawson): > Yes. When I worked for Kennect, writing their Rapport software, we had a > big magnet that we used to "destroy" a disk--the Macs wouldn't format a > MSDOS disk (720K). Bulk tape erasers work nicely, too. (Got mine at Radio Shack expressly for this purpose.) -- Paul DuBois dubois@primate.wisc.edu "Was all of this because I wore a big man's hat?"
jcocon@hubcap.clemson.edu (james c oconnor) (11/02/90)
Along a similar note - my Dad bought about 20 Kao HD disks - 13 of which are bad a year latter. He only uses them to back up his hard disk. I'm not too happy with the super drives or the disks. Jim