Date   : Fri, 08 Apr 1988 19:21:13 GMT
From   : necntc!dandelion!ulowell!hawk!msharp@AMES.ARC.NASA.GOV (Mike Sharp)
Subject: 8" floppy drive probles

In article <4735@ozdaltx.UUCP> bill@ozdaltx.UUCP (Billy Bob) writes:
>In article <802@nuchat.UUCP>, phillip@nuchat.UUCP (Phillip Keen) writes:
>
>> 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.
>> -- 
>>Thanks,          Snail Address:  Phillip Keen
>
>It must be true.  The two Qume DT-8's that I'm using are only 9 years
>old.  Had to get them cleaned and re-aligned last year, so they must
>not be very dependable.  Course, my system is only used every day for
>only 6-8 hours. ;-}
>
>
       I have a set of old Shugart 851 (DS/DD 8" drives) which
       I cleaned once (I think - maybe not at all) since a bought
       them 5-6 years ago -- and they were used when I bought them!
       During this time I have also cleaned a great number of 5.25"
       drives repeatedly and replaced two of them (one on a compaq &
       the other on an NEC APC III)

       I guess they just didn't make systems as well back then. :-)

       Moral:  They're like the old V-8s, not as much power/area
               (or in this case tracks/inch) but YOU CAN'T KILL 'EM!


       Also,  if you switch to 5.25" for CP/M, what format will you
       use?  You won't be able to xfer stuff as easily either.
       (or at least I wont)  Remeber: 8" SSSD format is STANDARD
       for all (ok, well 90%) of the CP/M machines!


               Mike Sharp