Re: Edhel finds DOS 3.3 speed-up (was DOS 3.3 versions)

["Aaron Pulver" <aaronp@paulbunyan.net>]

Christopher D. Heer <cheer@i.hate.spam> wrote in article
<5dn47g$odi@inet-nntp-gw-1.us.oracle.com>...
> In article <32fd574d.2061266@167.152.149.11>, drsmooth@relex.com says...
> 
> >On 7 Feb 1997 07:20:00 GMT, kentd@cup.hp.com (Kent Dickey) wrote:
> 
> >>I used to cut notches in disks to store data on the back, but I
> >>can at least admit that it made things less reliable.
> 
> >Really?  I've never lost a thing doing this to all of my previously
> >blank disks (I have over 100).
> 
> At one point I had well over 700, all notched.  Never had a problem.  The

> understanding I had at the time was that they bloody well had to certify
both 
> sides anyway, as Commodores and Apples used different sides of the disk,
but I 
> never bothered to check that out; it's prob. an urban legend.

I've never had a problem with notching disks either, but if I remember
correctly, it was disk rotation that caused a problem. As the disk
rotates, dust gets trapped in the lining of the floppy. On a dual-sided
drive, this isn't a problem. However, on a single-sided drive, when you
flip disk sides, the disk rotates the opposite way. (Of course.) This
pulls the dust back out of the fibers and on to the disk surface. That
is when your problems start. If you keep your disks fairly dust-free,
you might not have any problems from this.

Sorry if this got posted twice; my news server gave me an error the
first time.

-- 
                      | "Even though there may be some misguided
Aaron Pulver          | critics of what we're trying to do, I
aaronp@paulbunyan.net | think we're on the wrong path."
                      |    --- President Ronald Reagan