Date   : Fri, 18 Mar 1988 13:21:41 GMT
From   : ea.ecn.purdue.edu!wieland@ee.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeffrey J Wieland)
Subject: 8" floppy drive probles

In article <802@nuchat.UUCP> phillip@nuchat.UUCP (Phillip Keen) writes:
>In article <547@auvax.UUCP>, tech@auvax.UUCP (Richard Loken) writes:
>> I have recieved a lot of useful advice on my floppy drive.  The conclusion
>> is that I should try to clean it myself and then look for help if that
fails.
>
>Robert, although I reallize that 8" floppies are still good, but because you
>cannot find them hardly anymore I think you should get rid of your 8" floppy
>disk drives, but before that get 5 1/4" disk drives then get bunches of
>5 1/4" disks and copy your library over to the 5 1/4" disks and then get rid
>of your 8" disks and disk drives if you can.  Another reason I say this
is I've
>heard that 8" disks and disk drives are unreliable.  I don't know if this
>is true or not but it's a rumor I've heard.

I've always heard that 8" was MORE reliable.  Besides, they transfer data twice
as fast as 5.25" (except for the AT-type high-density drives).  Our locally
owned computer store here in West Lafayette, IN still has 8" disks on the
shelves.  And I still see them advertised in some of the catalogs I get
(e.g. Central Computer Products' "CP/M Times" catalog).

                       Jeff Wieland
                       wieland@ea.ecn.purdue.edu
"