readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) (11/20/90)
After all of the uproar concerning MEI / MicroCenter and their diskettes I decided that the only way to find out for sure was to go and order some myself. Here'e what happened: I picked up a copy of the Computer Shopper, and called MEI's 800 number listed in their ad. They answered on the first try, which is more than I can say for many of the advertisers in CS. I placed an order for 50 HD 3.5" diskettes, two packages of labels, and a couple of thei el-cheapo diskette storage boxes. I payed with a VISA number, and thet assured me that I would get the stuff within 7-10 days. This was all on Monday morning two weeks ago. The very next Monday, the box arrived. I sat down that night and formatted all of the diskettes, and discovered the following: out of 50 diskettes, 9 had one or more bad sectors. In the worst case, one diskette had almost 70Kbytes worth of bad sectors. Two of the diskettes had bad sectors on track 0, which makes them completely unusable. These two were complete write-offs, so I ripped them open because my girlfriend wanted to see what the inside of a diskette looks like. So the failure rate is either 9/50 or 2/50, depending on how you look at it. Either way, the 79 cents/diskette price makes them much cheaper than they are bought retail! I haven't tried calling MEI to see about replacements yet, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I'll do it, though, just to let people know how it goes. All in all, this was a pretty satisfactory order for me, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. -- Dave Read | readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |"I will go insane, and UT-Austin Nuclear Physics | readdm@physics.utexas.edu | I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME Graduate Student (Slave) | read@lampf.lanl.gov | -from 'Beetlejuice'
awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) (11/20/90)
In article <39963@ut-emx.uucp> readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) writes: >So the failure rate is either 9/50 or 2/50, depending on how you look >at it. Either way, the 79 cents/diskette price makes them much >cheaper than they are bought retail! Uh, can anyone out there shed some light on the issue of diskette failure rate AFTER they have been formatted? If that many disks fail formatting, how many are likely to fail later, when you have data on them? Especially over time with changing diskette drive read heads?
flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) (11/21/90)
awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) writes: >In article <39963@ut-emx.uucp> readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) writes: >>So the failure rate is either 9/50 or 2/50, depending on how you look >>at it. Either way, the 79 cents/diskette price makes them much >>cheaper than they are bought retail! >Uh, can anyone out there shed some light on the issue of diskette failure >rate AFTER they have been formatted? If that many disks fail formatting, >how many are likely to fail later, when you have data on them? Especially >over time with changing diskette drive read heads? Recent history only: Over the past 6 months, using around 150 3.5" HD and 100 5.25" HD and maybe 100 5.25" DSDD diskettes from MEI, I've never yet had one fail if it formatted properly. (An error rate that is measurable is too high.) I have had an average of about 2 out of each 50 3.5" diskettes be bad on arrival, but I've called them up and they've shipped replacements for the bad diskettes immediately every time, no questions. On the 5.25" diskettes: I'd been formatting my DSDD diskettes to 800K regularly with several different brands of diskettes with no problems, but when I bought some MEI diskettes and tried to do that with them, about 90% of them failed to format. So I format them to 720K, and they work fine, and are still a lot cheaper than any other on a per KB basis. I've never tried putting more than 1.4 MB on HD 5.25's, so I don't know if you can do that or not. -- Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc. 1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL 61874 (217) 352-1165 uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com
draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper) (11/21/90)
In article <1025@gistdev.gist.com> flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) writes: >awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) writes: > >>In article <39963@ut-emx.uucp> readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) writes: > > >>Uh, can anyone out there shed some light on the issue of diskette failure >>rate AFTER they have been formatted? If that many disks fail formatting, >>how many are likely to fail later, when you have data on them? Especially >>over time with changing diskette drive read heads? > >Recent history only: Over the past 6 months, using around 150 3.5" HD and 100 >5.25" HD and maybe 100 5.25" DSDD diskettes from MEI, I've never yet had one >fail if it formatted properly. (An error rate that is measurable is too high.) Hi, Call me stupid or whatever, but I've got a couple of SINGLE SIDED 3.5" diskettes (no brand, meant to hold 360K) that I've been using for a couple years formatted at 1.44 Megabytes. I don't keep anything valuable on them, just moving things between computers and stuff like that, and I've had no errors. I agree that if you can get the diskette to format and work reliably, it won't fail until the metal oxide wears off the disk - a couple years or more of heavy use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick Draper In times like these it is helpful to buster.cps.msu.edu remember that there have always been times like these. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
alan@km4ba.UUCP (Alan Barrow) (11/27/90)
draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper) writes: stuff deleted... >Call me stupid or whatever, but I've got a couple of SINGLE SIDED 3.5" FYI, Most single sided 3.5" disks did not have the bottom side of the media polished. In testing that my company did on using the single sided disks in DS drives, head wear was much accelerated. It was like using an abrasive head cleaner on the bottom head. They would read and write however. If you look at the disk, you can usually tell a difference visually. Once DS disks came out, I think everyone just quit making SS media, so it is not an issue anymore. Once I saw the test results, I gave/traded all my blue SS 3.5" to friends with old macs & Atari ST's. Most Mac-people will argue with you abt this, until you show them the difference visually. Have fun! Alan Barrow ..!gatech!kd4nc!km4ba!alan >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Patrick Draper In times like these it is helpful to >buster.cps.msu.edu remember that there have always been > times like these. >------------------------------------------------------------------------