Re: Best way to make backups of 3.5" disks - copy prog?

["Roger Johnstone" <rojaws@es.co.nz>]

----------
In article <3870AA42.6F4C435A@blakespot.com>, Blake Patterson
<blake@blakespot.com> wrote:


>
> I actually found some Imation (3M?) "DD 720K DOS" disks at
>MicroWarehouse at something like $5.50 a box.  I just ordered 10 boxes. 
>They had some others that were unformatted (for a buck more / box...?)
>that said "High Density" on the box but right next to it had the letters
>"DS,DD" -- odd.  Anyway -- I want to do the right thing.
>
> I'm just amazed that these 10-13 year old disks still work.  Should I
>be?  I remember paying $49.95 for boxes of 10 Maxell 3.5" disks back
>when I had an Amiga 1000.  Seems like the quality was higher then as
>well.  I mean, I go ahead and take a 3.5" disk out of the supply closet
>at work and write some HD data to it (PC) and need to worry if the
>motion of ejecting the disk, moving through the electromagnetic field of
>the earth, is going to erase the data that was just written.  Is it me
>or have 3.5" disks just REALLY gotten HORRIBLY unreliable??  (Actually,
>the first disk out of the box of 100 Sony HD disks I just got for $25,
>when put in the GS caused a horrible noise--turns out the disk was
>jammed and would not rotate.  Amazing.)
>
> Anyway...
>

I've had similar experiences. In the past you paid more for the name brand
disks like Verbatim -> 3M -> Imation in the knowledge that they were better
quality than the cheapo disks. Now, the Imation disks are exactly the same
price, and the same quality, as the cheapest no-name crap you can find. I
had a box recently of preformatted PC 3.5 HD disks. Tried them in a PC, two
of the disks had hard errors right from new. By hard errors, I mean they
couldn't even be reformatted, they had bad sectors from brand new. These
disks were formatted and tested at the factory, I don't see how they could
have been physically damaged in transit.

In contrast I have two Maxell 5.25 floppies which are still used every few
weeks on my Apple II's. I bought these from a friend at school back when a
single disk cost NZ$7 (US$3.50). He had used them for a year. I've had them
since 1985. That's 15 years and neither of them has ever had a single bad
sector! These disks were also notched to make them double sided. Of course,
the big advantage they have is that they are only storing 1/5 of the data a
1.4MB floppy has and on a much larger area, so the data density is much
lower.

The best thing you can do for a disk is store it away in a dry place. When I
have lost data on disks I have often noticed tiny patches of what I assume
is fungus growing on the surface, my Maxell disks are completely free of
these still.


Roger Johnstone
Invercargill
New Zealand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from Red Dwarf III: The Last Day
Kryten:But you would not profit by it. You would gamble your safety for a
mere android? Is this the human value you call - friendship?
Dave Lister:Don't give that Star Trek crap, it's too early in the morning.