6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) (10/28/90)
Fellow netters... For 7 years I've been buying floppy disks, generally sticking with a name brand or an off-brand that I'd had good experience with but occasionally buying generics with success. Although I generally never buy anything from Computer Shopper, I've seen enough MEI/Micro Center advertisements over the years to feel it was worth ordering from them. My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors. I tried the remaining 24 in the package... out of 25 diskettes I had problems with 3. I've never had a failure rate like that... in fact I only remember ONE diskette in 7 years that failed to properly format the first time. My drive is fine. I'm afraid to try the 3.5" diskettes. Has anyone else had experience with MEI/Micro? The 5.25" HD and 3.5" DD were labelled "Made in China" (please do not interpret this as a flame of China although their government deserves it) while the 3.5" HD were "Made in Hong Kong." I give this informa- tion simply because it was the only identification on them. In the future I will DEFINITELY buy from my previous, reliable sources. My data is too valuable (tens of thousands of dollars of consulting research effort on each diskette) to risk it even though I do MULTIPLE backups stored in separate locations (in case of fire, flood or other disaster). Even with this policy I've come close... one of my client's computers chewed up two floppies with text of a manual I wrote for them (luckily I had two other copies... one on hard disk and one on floppy). Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or worse? Bill Bushing "Life is too important to be taken seriously." - Einstein
chao@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Chia-Chi Chao) (10/28/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes: >I tried the remaining 24 in the package... out of 25 diskettes I >had problems with 3. I've never had a failure rate like that... > >Has anyone else had experience with MEI/Micro? The 5.25" HD and >3.5" DD were labelled "Made in China" (please do not interpret >this as a flame of China although their government deserves it) >while the 3.5" HD were "Made in Hong Kong." I give this informa- >tion simply because it was the only identification on them. I have bought hundreds of disks from MEI/Micro over the years, and I have not had much problem with them. The quality seems to have gone down, however. About 5 out of the 200 5.25" HD disks in my last order failed to format properly, but they were replaced promptly. They used to pack the disks in heavy plastic bags, and the disks worked 100%. Now the disks are in lightweight plastic printed "Made in Hong Kong" (for 5.25" HD at least), and that's when the problem started. I will probably try another vendor next time. Any comments from other MEI/Micro customers? -- Chia-Chi Chao chao@cs.ucla.edu ..!ucbvax!cs.ucla.edu!chao
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (10/28/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes:
I've seen enough MEI/Micro Center advertisements over the
years to feel it was worth ordering from them.
My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday
and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was
a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors.
At the price MEI charges, you could have half your disks have bad
sectors, and you'd still be ahead of the "name brands". If a disk
formats with any bad sectors, I throw it into the bad disk pile. Yes,
it's a bit of a pain, but it only wastes a little time since I format
my disks with CONFMT while I'm reading news.
--
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) Russ.Nelson@$315.268.6667
It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman DysonDSB100@psuvm.psu.edu (David Barr) (10/28/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) says: >My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday >and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was >a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors. I've had similar results with my order of 3.5" HD diskettes. While my order took a little longer to get here, I figure for the price it's not a bad deal at all. As already mentioned, they will replace defective disks. 5.25" HD diskettes are intrinsically more picky when it comes to formatting. I've had more problems with HD 5.25's than I care to think about. I refuse to work with them if I don't have to. > My data is too valuable (tens of thousands of dollars >of consulting research effort on each diskette) to risk it even >... I'd agree. I use namebrand floppies when it comes to my backups, or somtimes I use these with lots of error checking (I use Norton Backup and does tend to find errors when backing up on MEI disks) >Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or >worse? Well, not quite a flame, but they could do some testing somewhere along the line to make sure bad disks don't leave the warehouse. I have a feeling this joint is an ~10 person business, running out of an abandoned building. /David Barr - Penn State CAC Student Consultant | 'The Trim Sig' | dsbarr@endor.cs.psu.edu | 906 Tener Hall | DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu \Univ. Park PA, 16802 | barr@barrstl.scol.pa.us
F0O@psuvm.psu.edu (10/28/90)
In relation to the other comments about MEI/Micro, I've been thinking
of buying around 30 3.5" 1.44M disks, to back up around 30M of graphic
data. Once a disk is formatted without any errors, has anyone had problems
with the disks later developing problems? Can I rely on these disks for
long-term storage?
Should I go to a name brand disk for long-term backups?
[Tim]kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) (10/29/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes: >Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or >worse? > One of the reasons that you can get "generic" disks so cheap is that YOU are doing the testing and weeding out the bad ones. MEI will replace these but if there are only a few, it's not worth the postage. I have been using their disks for several years with no complaints. I usually have about a 3-5% initial failure rate and am happy with that. I have never had a disk that formats 100% the first time fail at a later date. Just because some fail the initial format, it does not (necessarily) logically follow that the ones that DO pass are somehow less reliable. Do they deserve the flame......probably not. Should you use their disks.....probably not since it makes you uncomfortable. Will I continue to use them......Absolutely. -- ======================================================== Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (10/29/90)
In article <90300.195308DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu> DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu (David Barr) writes: >In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu>, 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) says: > >>My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday >>and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was >>a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors. >> My data is too valuable (tens of thousands of dollars >>of consulting research effort on each diskette) to risk it even >I'd agree. I use namebrand floppies when it comes to my backups, or >somtimes I use these with lots of error checking (I use Norton Backup >and does tend to find errors when backing up on MEI disks) I've run PC TOOLS backup program using 3.5" HD disks, and there were no problems. I'm not so sure that name brands make all that much of a difference. I've had a lot of trouble with 3M 3.5" high density disks, and some of the students in our department have had trouble with TDK 3.5" HD disks. I should aslo point out that that problem was using a Mac IIcx's super drive, which may or may not have any bearing on the problem. I've never tried MEI's disks on those drives >>Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or >>worse? >I have a >feeling this joint is an ~10 person business, running out of an >abandoned building. I know a lot of people who have bought stuff from them, and would generally recommend their disks. I think that all told I've bought about 400 disks of various kinds from them, and generally have had no problems. As they do guarantee replacement, the deal is good if you want a lot of disks. They advertise pretty widely, and seem to have a lot of customers. -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202
BLI@psuvm.psu.edu (JEFF BRENDLE) (10/29/90)
We have used MEI/Micro Center Floppies at the campus labs I am responsible for for about a year and a half. Of the thousand we used we have not experienced a huge failure rate, and even "bad disks" can sometimes be used albeit at a lower capacity for "emergency storage" when you only really need a disk that you can "reach for". For my personal use, I've gone through over 200 of their 3.5" HD & DD disks...only had *two* that didn't format the first time using a PS/2 disk drive known to be "picky". All other machines in the lab had NO PROBLEMS even with these two. As to reliability in the long run...I've had MORE PROBLEMS in my stacks of Sony/BASF/Maxell then in any of the MEI. Draw whatever conclusion you want but in the long run it comes down to you feeling comfortable trusting your data to whatever disks you are using. I trust them, and feel the price is good; accept the low failure rate for the savings; but I do admit my last order did come through before the change of Made in's. :-) -Jeff- PSU Berks Campus Computer Consultant
kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) (10/30/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes: > >Although I generally never buy anything from Computer Shopper, >I've seen enough MEI/Micro Center advertisements over the >years to feel it was worth ordering from them. > >My order of 5.25" HD, 3.5" DD and HD diskettes arrived yesterday >and I started formatting the 5.25" HD's. The VERY FIRST one was >a disaster, finally formatting with a number of bad sectors. >I tried the remaining 24 in the package... out of 25 diskettes I >had problems with 3. I've never had a failure rate like that... >in fact I only remember ONE diskette in 7 years that failed to >properly format the first time. My drive is fine. I'm afraid to >try the 3.5" diskettes. I've been buying from MEI for a number of years, and have never had any problem with them. One batch of floppies from them was "bad" (i.e. 10 bad floppies out of 100). I called, and a replacement for the entire order arrived the next day. I've never lost data from one of their floppies (that was the floppy's fault, anyway). I'll stick with them for now. (I also get calls from salescritters who want to sell me ribbons. Their prices for one ribbon usually matches what MEI charges for a half-dozen of the same ribbons). -- _ Kevin D. Quitt demott!kdq kdq@demott.com DeMott Electronics Co. 14707 Keswick St. Van Nuys, CA 91405-1266 VOICE (818) 988-4975 FAX (818) 997-1190 MODEM (818) 997-4496 PEP last 96.37% of all statistics are made up.
david@gisatl.FIDONET.ORG (David Deitch) (10/30/90)
There are a number of reasons that the disks can go bad. Quality
control ends when they leave the manufacturer. Disks can be damaged
in transit or in shipping, or simply fail even after standing up to
QC tests. I have also had name-brand disks fail fresh out of the box
too.
I would send your disks back and ask for a refund or a
replacement shipment. You will find their customer service people to
be very understanding.
David Deitch (GIS)
deitch@gisatl.fidonet.org
1:133/411@fidonet
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Deitch - via FidoNet node 1:133/411
UUCP: galbp!gisatl!david
INTERNET: david@gisatl.FIDONET.ORGfrank@odetics.com (Frank Merrow) (10/30/90)
In article <6834@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes: >Fellow netters... > (long story about bad floppies deleted) > >Any comments on MEI/Micro? Do they deserve the flame... or >worse? > >Bill Bushing I have ordered from them several times and liked what they gave me. Cheap floppies with no problems. However in my last order several months ago (50 High Den floppies) did give me a few bad discs which I tossed. It could be they are having QA problems. They have been good in the past, but our two experiences may mean they need to be watched in the future. Frank frank@odetics.com or uunet!odetics!frank
py@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung) (10/31/90)
In article <90300.224007F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> F0O@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > >data. Once a disk is formatted without any errors, has anyone had problems >with the disks later developing problems? Can I rely on these disks for >long-term storage? It depends on what do you mean by "long-term". I have a whole bunch of 5.25" floppies went bad on me. They were at least 6 years old. Once a floppy went bad, it went downhill pretty quick (i.e. once bad sectors started appearing, it got worse and worse in subsequent usage). However, today's floppies may be better. BTW, all those bad floppies were brand name like Dysan and CDC, there were no "no-brand name" floppies back then. -- Peter Yeung Amdahl Canada Ltd., Software Development Center 2000 Argentia Road, Plaza 2, Suite 300 Mississauga, Ont. L5N 1V8 Phone: (416) 542-6300 Fax: (416) 858-2233
kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) (11/01/90)
In article <651.272D9B38@gisatl.FIDONET.ORG> david@gisatl.FIDONET.ORG (David Deitch) writes: > I would send your disks back and ask for a refund or a >replacement shipment. You will find their customer service people to >be very understanding. Call them first, it's probably not necessary to send them back. -- _ Kevin D. Quitt demott!kdq kdq@demott.com DeMott Electronics Co. 14707 Keswick St. Van Nuys, CA 91405-1266 VOICE (818) 988-4975 FAX (818) 997-1190 MODEM (818) 997-4496 PEP last 96.37% of all statistics are made up.
ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall) (11/01/90)
> I would send your disks back and ask for a refund or a >replacement shipment. You will find their customer service people to >be very understanding. ------------------- I just got off the phone to MEI (800 number). I had purchased 50 5.25 HD disks and 15 of them (30%) were not good. 4 wouldn't even format at all; the rest had bad sectors. I just told them the problem and them said they would send out 15 more and that I didn't need to send back the bad ones. (It is my fervant hope that people don't start lying about bad disks to get more free ones ... that could kill the Golden Goose) I still would like to know what the odds are that "marginal" disks might "go bad" at a later date. -ted- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ted@helios.ucsc.edu |"He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the W (408)459-2110 |Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness H (408)423-2444 |and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (RSV)
js@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Jeffrey A. Shorey) (11/02/90)
From article <8416@darkstar.ucsc.edu>, by ted@helios.ucsc.edu (Ted Cantrall): > I just got off the phone to MEI (800 number). I had purchased 50 5.25 HD > disks and 15 of them (30%) were not good. 4 wouldn't even format at all; > the rest had bad sectors. I just told them the problem and them said they My experience with MEI disks is to use a low level format program like Norton Utilities WipeDisk on all disks first, then format them. From around 200 floppies I had a bad disk rate (ie a disk with any bad sectors at all) of around 5% or less. They seem to have good longevity also, although I mainly used them for hard disk backups and used my other disks for important things. - Jeff Shorey
ESR@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (Ed Russell) (11/02/90)
In reply to: > From: py@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung) > Subject: Re: MEI/Micro Center floppy disks > Date: 30 Oct 90 19:13:12 GMT > > In article <90300.224007F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> F0O@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > > > >data. Once a disk is formatted without any errors, has anyone had problems > >with the disks later developing problems? Can I rely on these disks for > >long-term storage? > > It depends on what do you mean by "long-term". I have a whole bunch of 5.25" > floppies went bad on me. They were at least 6 years old. Once a floppy went > bad, it went downhill pretty quick (i.e. once bad sectors started appearing, > it got worse and worse in subsequent usage). However, today's floppies may > be better. BTW, all those bad floppies were brand name like Dysan and CDC, > there were no "no-brand name" floppies back then. My experience has also been that data on many floppies may deteriorate with time. For critical data, I find that an occasional pass through PCTOOLS 6.0 DiskFix "Revitialize floppy" function is helpful. I think the Norton Disk Doctor has a similar function although I haven't used it.
sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) (11/02/90)
In article <1156@cameron.egr.duke.edu> js@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Jeffrey A. Shorey) writes: [DELETIONS] > My experience with MEI disks is to use a low level format program like >Norton Utilities WipeDisk on all disks first, then format them. From around >200 floppies I had a bad disk rate (ie a disk with any bad sectors at all) of >around 5% or less. They seem to have good longevity also, although I mainly >used them for hard disk backups and used my other disks for important things. > >- Jeff Shorey Do you mean that Norton WipeDisk will work on an unformatted disk? I thought it only would zero out all information written on an already-formatted disk. So data in an erased file can not be retrieved by Unerasing, for example. What does WipeDisk do to an UNFORMATTED disk? Thanks. ______________________________________________________________________________ Bob Davis, UofALA'66 \\ INTERNET : sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com | _ _ | Harris Corporation, ESS \\ UUCP : ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!sonny |_| |_| | | Advanced Technology Dept.\\ AETHER : K4VNO |==============|_/\/\/\|_| PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 \\ VOICE : (407) 727-5886 | I SPEAK ONLY | |_| |_| | Melbourne, FL 32902 \\ FAX : (407) 729-2537 | FOR MYSELF. |_________|
allen@audiofax.com (Allen Jensen) (11/02/90)
I just bought a package of (25) disks from my local MicroCenter
3 bad out of 25 (12% failure) - I'll try taking the three bad one's
back tomorrow.......
--
P. Allen Jensen AudioFAX, Inc. / Suite 200
allen@audiofax.com 2000 Powers Ferry Rd.
emory!audfax!allen Marietta, GA. 30067
Up to 24 FAX lines in a 80386 based system runing System V UNIXkris@beep.UUCP (Port'naybl) (11/03/90)
[Pyuallup, Washington got its name when someone regurgitated there.]
I bought some 3.5 inch floppy disks at "Wierd Stuff", a local computer
surplus dealer, that were still sealed in the box. For this reason, I
gathered that they were new but, for some reason, wound in the store.
Some failed to format, so a zapped them with a video tape bulk eraser.
Had no trouble with them after that.
--
Port'naybl
key!beep!kris
woodowl!beep!kris
"Look what they've done to my program, look what they've done to my code;
They stuck it all on this floppy disk, and I think they got it wrong, ma..."rcw@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Robert White) (11/10/90)
In article <1156@cameron.egr.duke.edu> js@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Jeffrey A. Shorey) writes: > My experience with MEI disks is to use a low level format program like >Norton Utilities WipeDisk on all disks first, then format them. >- Jeff Shorey Another oddity. If you try to format them first, and they fail to format correctly, and then you try to format them a second time, often they will be ok. Pretty wierd, huh? -- Robert C. White, Jr. Right lane of .signature closed, merge left The WhiteStar Corporation rcw@scicom.alphacdc.com Send all flames to: hussein@iraqvax.mideast.gov
kdq@demott.COM (Kevin D. Quitt) (11/11/90)
In article <7948@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> rcw@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Robert White) writes: > >Another oddity. If you try to format them first, and they fail to >format correctly, and then you try to format them a second time, often >they will be ok. > >Pretty wierd, huh? Not at all. Often the disks have small surface defects which wil cause a format failure only if located in certain areas of the track information. There are enough vagaries from one formatting to the next, the the spot may fall into a non-used area the second time. Another possibility (rare, but I *have* seen it) is an ara that somehow got highly magnetized, and requires multiple erasures to bring to a writable state. From that point on, it's ok. -- _ Kevin D. Quitt demott!kdq kdq@demott.com DeMott Electronics Co. 14707 Keswick St. Van Nuys, CA 91405-1266 VOICE (818) 988-4975 FAX (818) 997-1190 MODEM (818) 997-4496 PEP last 96.37% of all statistics are made up.