Need help *fast*

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Tinnin [mailto:krinklyfig at spymac.com]
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 9:02 PM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt; Nikolas Britton; Broder Mizzérable
> Subject: Re: Need help *fast*
>
>
> This would be consistent with my experience. I'd estimate that upwards
> of 95% of the 5.25" floppies I bought in the '80s (mostly Elephant)
> lasted for five years or more, most more than ten, last time I checked,
> and they may still be working, though my old Apple IIe was donated to
> the public school system in the mid '90s (I still miss it). Contrast
> this with my experience buying 3.5" floppies over the last ten years or
> so. The failure rate was as high as 20% when I was first buying those
> around '95 or so, much higher than the 5.25" floppies I bought in the
> past, but the better brands were about as good as I remember the old
> ones. But as time went on and home CD burners became a reality then
> became cheaper, 3.5" floppies got worse and worse. Even with a good
> brand, something like 30-50% of my 3.5" floppies fail within a year (as
> many as 10% are bad right out of the box), and 80%+ after a few years.
> At least they're cheap enough to where it's not that big of a deal
> financially, and if you're using a relatively modern OS then not that
> much can be stored on them anymore anyway, but it's frustrating to use
> a storage medium with such a high failure rate. All of this is
> anecdotal, so my figures don't mean anything but to me, but I know it's
> not isolated.
>

It's consistent with what I am observing too.

Ted