6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) (11/07/90)
One more note regarding MEI disks.
I had the opportunity to format the rest of the 5.25" HD and
3.5" DD diskettes I purchased from MEI. The results were as
follows:
5.25" HD 3 out of 25 bad = 12%
5.25" HD 9 out of 25 bad = 36%
3.5 " DD 8 out of 25 bad = 32%
Obviously these are very poor failure rates. Although MEI is
certainly willing to replace the bad disks, I don't see how
anyone who cares about data integrity could accept the above
failure rates. I recommend that potential customers look
elsewhere UNTIL MEI has solved the problem.
It does appear that MEI is sincere in their interest to regain
their former higher quality (as evidenced by the comments from
MANY satisfied MEI customers in the past.
Bill Bushingdraper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper) (11/07/90)
In article <7012@hub.ucsb.edu> 6500boo@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (William Bushing) writes: >One more note regarding MEI disks. > >I had the opportunity to format the rest of the 5.25" HD and >3.5" DD diskettes I purchased from MEI. The results were as >follows: > > 5.25" HD 3 out of 25 bad = 12% > 5.25" HD 9 out of 25 bad = 36% > 3.5 " DD 8 out of 25 bad = 32% > Sorry, I guess those aren't quite the final words :-) Anyway, I've just formatted a bunch of DS/DD MEI diskettes (3.5" generic) and I've had no errors at all. I suggest that my tests are more rigorous than yours because I formatted all to 1.44 megabytes, not the 720k they are rated for. I've also run most of them through fastback and norton's backup as another test (of different 1.44M formats) and those programs, known to be picky about diskettes, did not reject any of them, except for one, which DID work with those programs at the lower normal capacity of 720K. Perhaps they've just had bad luck with a few batches, and now they're on track again. I hope so because I will continue to buy. Please, nobody flame me for backing up my data on 1.44M formatted DS/DD diskettes. I know the chance of losing data is greater than winning the lottery. Probably by a large amount. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Patrick Draper In times like these it is helpful to buster.cps.msu.edu remember that there have always been times like these. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
readdm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (David M. Read) (11/08/90)
In article <> draper@buster.cps.msu.edu (Patrick J Draper) writes: > >I suggest that my tests are more rigorous than yours because I formatted >all to 1.44 megabytes, not the 720k they are rated for. I've also run >most of them through fastback and norton's backup as another test (of >different 1.44M formats) and those programs, known to be picky about >diskettes, did not reject any of them, except for one, which DID work >with those programs at the lower normal capacity of 720K. > More words: After all the discussion, I had to find out for myself, so I have ordered a batch of 3.5" HD diskettes from MEI. We'll see how it goes. A question, though: how did you format the 720K diskettes to 1.44MB? My drive auto-senses the media density, and won't allow HD formats on LD diskettes? >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Patrick Draper In times like these it is helpful to >buster.cps.msu.edu remember that there have always been > times like these. >------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- 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'