Date   : Fri, 02 Dec 1983 06:43:44-PST
From   : Mike Bishop@BRL-VGR.ARPA
Subject: Re: Dysan note: Using floppy backside

  Thanks for the scoop on using both sides of disks on single headed drives.
I have been using both sides of my disks for about two years and I have NEVER
had a detected error - who knows about those nasty undetected ones! The point o
of this is that I have been hearing horror stories about using both sides of
my disks for quite some time and I have never seen the results of any studies 
that indicate that errors have or definitely will occur. Your message states
that these errors "might" occur or that the "probability" of contamination
increases. Also, performance is reduced - which performance and how much?

I am a little bit doubtful about the validity of claims like this made by a 
disk manufacturer because it is in his best interest - we all have to buy
twice as many disks!

Finally, if the horror stories are true, then think about this scenario:
if I use "flippied" disks, I can fit twice as much data on a disk - so I can 
have a separate, possibly remotely located, back-up copy - for the same cost!
So, if I have either a "normal" failure or a "flippy-induced" failure I still
have a back-up copy. This would seem to provide MORE protection for that 
valuable data we all have.

Another thing - since the liner traps "contaminating-particles", can it become 
overloaded? If so what happens then? How do you know that the liner is full?
It seems that this situation would cause many of the possible failures you 
mentioned also. So, maybe using both sides of a disk would periodically "clean"
the liner out.

Thanks again, and I look forward to a response.    Mike Bishop