Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    From my experience, if you use a brand name of reliable disks like
    Sony or TDK, and buy the single sided variety, you shouldn't have
    any problems.  I have over 100 SS disks, and about the same # of
    DS disks, and haven't had any problem whatsoever.  From what I have
    heard, double sided disks are verified for errors on both sides,
    and single sided on only one.  It is really up to you using SS disks
    or not; I do it all the time, since you can get SS Sony's for $1
    each.
    
    Derek
    

There was a major debate over this on Usenet recently.  In the
end it was decided that its best to use DS disks.  Someone said
that some companies test for errors on both sides.  If a disk fails
on one side but not both it is put in the SS pile.  Thus making it
very unlikely that a SS disk would format properly on both sides.

The last company I worked for did process process control equipment for
the plastics industry. One of the accounts I spent a lot of time at was
Memorex in Santa Clara on lines making disk media. Single sided disks are
sometimes only coated with oxide on one side.  Even if they are coated
on both sides, if the coating is uneven or too thin they might not do a
good job on compaction of the oxide on one side which could give you loose
oxide on one side of the disk that could definitely mess up your heads
or cause eventual loss of data. The liners in floppy disks are made of
a nonwoven material ( Kendall in Athens, Ga. - another old customer )
and are meant to provide a relatively frictionless surface for the media
and to remove small amounts of free oxide. In the case of bad oxide
compaction, I have seen these liners turn black and start abrading the 
rest of the oxide off till all that was left was a smudged piece of
mylar.

Sorry, knowing the quality control that goes into these disks, I can't
see risking my data and drives on less than certified double sided disks
for the slight increase in cost.

Dick

< Note 514.0 by AUNTB::PRESSLEY >
                                                     -< Single sided floppies >-

    Is there any problem with using single sided double density floppies
    with the Amiga?  So who should I believe?
---
    Don't know about you, but I'd rater spend a little more and get disks which
    are gauranteed by their manufacturer.  That's part of what you pay for.  It's
    well worth the extra dollar to know that I'm not putting a sandpaper surface
    against my disk heads.  (Sure, the engineers say the heads don't touch the
    surface, but they're not expecting the surface to look like the landscape on
    the moon!)

    I know people who have used SS disks and seem to have no problems - however,
    they're certainly asking for some!  A local Amiga software/hardware outlet in
    Worcester even distributes "free" public domain disks on single sided disks.

    Disk drives are a terrible thing to waste.  Just think, after a corrupted
    floppy trashes your heads - you can easily go on trashing other floppies
    while you're trying to figure out what happened!

    I'd guess (though I'd never test it on my equipment) that SS floppies wwould
    work fairly well 90% of the time - without even so much as a data error.  The
    other 10% of the time, you'll find the marginal disks that failed QC.  They
    could cost you $$$$ and #*&!@##!&^ ....  Why risk it?

-Phil

 

    See Notes 54.* for *many* other experiences.  Especially 54.9!!
    

RE:  Note 514.5 

>>> See Notes 54.* for *many* other experiences.  Especially 54.9!!
    
The other experiences must be from lost data on a bad floppy as there is no
54.9!!! ;^}