🚀 go-pugleaf

tonyb@removeme.ramhb.co.nz (**Modify to email**) wrote:

>Hi and thanks for reading this
>
>I wonder if others have noted the seeming higher failure rate for floppy disks these days.
>
>I, and others that I have spoken to have all noted this.
>
>This is with prime spec disks (not rubbish) in brands like FUJI, SONY and VERBATIM
>
>The most common problem is with a Track ZERO error but I have also had disks that have been 
>formatted and a few days later have a data error.

FWIW I've had far fewer problems with floppy disks since I learned not
to trust them.  E.g. last night I dropped a brand new floppy disk from
4ft onto concrete.  I binned it.  Theres probably a 99% chance it was
perfectly OK, but even a possibly duff floppy is more trouble than it's
worth considering the nominal cost of replacing them.

I also bin my floppies when I've re-written over them two or three
times.  I find that bad sectors are much more likely to appear after the
disk has be rewritten a few times than when new.  I've not had a problem
with floppies for months.

-- 
Andrew Smallshaw
smallsa7@cs.man.ac.uk