MToolsFM

[bryann]

On Sun, 2007-01-14 at 17:11 +0200, Harijs Buss wrote:
> On Sunday 14 January 2007 16:14, Donn rakstija:
> > > floppy and finding that some of my disk are bad.
> > Ah! Yes floppies are notorious for that! Good luck.
> 
> Specially floppies produced in last years are particularly bad and unreliable. 
> Old floppies are often much better, if kept out of dust.  When I (rarely 
> nowadays) need to use a floppy, I have bunch of relicts which were once part 
> of an IBM OS/2 installation package about 10 years ago :-)  They still are 
> 100% good, no i/o errors whatsoever.  Probably the best part of OS/2 still in 
> use :)  Oh wait, I have nice dark purple OS/2 mug as well. 
> 
> Harijs
> hey OS/2 we used that for servers until 13 months ago when IBM put it to sleep.

FWIW OS/2 is the ONLY way to fix some of these disks and even MAKE
copies of the original W95 installation disks (except for disk1)

Additionally there IS a quality problem with current disks, but it's not
the disks; it's the stores. The disks sit around past reliable shelf
life,

AND

The inventory and tracking used at Walmart etc etc install a small
plastic radio chip on the box. it will also trigger the alarms at the
stored. contrary to docs on the subject the use of this device damages
the disks near to it in the box.

I recently bought a box that 80% reported errors.  Usually a few disks
in the middle of the box will work OK but the ones near the tracker will
be bad and if it is on the end of the box (usually is) the ones at the
OTHER end of the box will be bad from the device on an adjacent box. I
pulled my hair out until I figured this out. Now if I need floppies I
fix them BEFORE using them,

I fix them by erasing them with a bulk eraser meant for magnetic tape.
and formatting them with a FULL format (not the erase quick format
present in today's operating systems) works everytime. I also check them
with an old OS/2 utility  but most people won't have that.

Preformatting is done on virtually ALL floppies on the market now, You
need to start from an unformatted disk to get reliability today... They
often sit in stock a long time and deteriorate. Here in the dry desert
where static is a constant problem it is very apparent. Disks
deteriorate Rapidly.  FWIW I have OS/2 install disks back to 2.1  I have
checked and refreshed them periodically back to last year when I quit
OS/2 and eCS.

OH and maybe it's overreaction as few except where I live actually carry
a weapon but backing off ten paces and shooting a floppy drive with a 44
is gonna scatter debris at your neighbors. angle of incidence= angle of
refraction. I wouldn't even shoot a rattler from that angle you risk
shooting your neighbor a kilometer away.
 
Bryann