🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1783@petsd.UUCP> hill@petsd.UUCP (John S. Hill) writes:
>In article <52048@coherent.coherent.com> dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) writes:
...
 | |1) Improper formatting of floppies.  Some people are in the habit of
 | |   buying single-sided floppies (knowing that the "cookies" are coated
 | |   on both sides), trying to format them double-sided, and (when the
 | |   format operation succeeds) assuming that the diskettes are safe to
 | |   use.
 | |   This is a dangerous practice... many single-sided floppies are ones
 | |   which passed the manufacturer's certification process on one side,
 | |   but failed on the other side.  Such floppies may work OK for a
 | |   while... but if there are defects in the oxide layer on the second
 | |   side, data written to this side of the floppy may "fade" after a
 | |   while.
 |
 |While in theory I agree with this, in practice, I've never had any problems.

Some people still insist on buying magtape certified no higher
than 800 bpi.  Some of them get burned.  Some of them still have
now idea *why* they're getting burned.

 | |4) Improper storage of the diskettes.  If you store a diskette near any
 | |   device which generates a magnetic field, information on the disk can
 | |   be partially erased... leading to an unreadable disk at some later
 | |   time.  Diskettes should not be placed on top of an external-floppy
 |           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 | |   drive, or leaned up against the side of the Mac (I _think_ that only
 | |   the left side of the classic Mac is a danger zone, but I could well
 | |   be wrong).
 |
 |I always thought that this was a real silly argument.  If the disk isn't
 |harmed by being *in* the drive, how on God's green earth can it be harmed
 |by sitting on *top* of the drive?

So did I, for a very short time.  Especially since putting a
floppy you're about to re-insert shortly is analogous to putting
a magtape on top of a tape drive.

But, at least back then, the top of the floppy drive was not
shielded against the magnetic fields put out by the drive motor.
Once the users learned this and changed their habits, many
unreadable disk problems went away.  Except for those users who
smoked or tolerated smoking near their media and drives.
 |
 | |5) Contamination of the diskette during storage... by dust, tobacco
 | |   smoke, etc.  People sometimes fling floppies around as if they were
 | |   invulnerable, or stick them in a shirt-pocket... and end up with a
 | |   dirty or scratched "cookie".
 |
 |After using the Mac in a University envrionment for 5 years, I can state
 |that short of shooting the blasted things, you *can't* hurt a floppy.
...
Ah, but you can.  see above.
 |I've seen people do real nasty things to them, including handling them with
 |grape jelly smeared hands, and they seem to work just fine (although I wouldn't
 |want *that* floppy in *my* drive).

You said it.  I'll second.  As far as I am concerned, *that*
floppy is damaged beyond repair.