Hi, what brand of floppy disks,
do you use?.
Which is the most reliable?.
Ever had any brands, that are only good for beer coasters?
Your thoughts please-

Mike Trump

Mike,

My CD Burner has rendered my floppy drive all but obsolete...

Are they even putting floppy drives on the new ones?

I think they are,
I bought a new system not long ago and that had one.
I think it's so that people can run off copies of thier CV's, witout the high cost of a CD every time.

Mike Trump

I seem to have a mixture of makes -- TDK, Sony, Maxell etc. and don't have any problems with them.

Call me a dinosaur if you will, but I acyually still use 5-1/4" disks on one system!

I use the large number of free CD's that appear in my mailbox for that!



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 04-11-2003).]

My floppy drives don't get used very much anymore. I do still have a 5-1/4 drives on some machines too Paul

It seems that I've had a lot of problems reading and writing to Floppys recently and was wondering if that was an indication that the (cheap) 3-1/2 drives are going bad or just that they must be cleaned. Anyone else have similar problems?

Bill

Maxell 1.44M discs with plastic shutters are cool.

Occasionally, there is just no substitute for "Nike Net" {er, hand-delivered data.}

I also have a machine with a 5 1/4' drive. But then again, my stereo has an 8 track recorder on it too.

My turntable is out of service until I can find a place to get a new stylus or cartridge.

kale,
We had a thread going in the Non-US Forum last year(I think) about this very thing
(Record player stylii).
Maybe that will help with the source for a replacement?.

Guys,
I have heard that Verbatim is supposed to be pretty good, although quite expensive.
What are your thoughts on this brand?.
All I want to do with these disks, is load a few work related Ladder diagrams and a few other things, where a CD Rom would be a waste of resources, also, our laptop at work only takes 3.5's.

I used hundreds of 5-1/4 and 8-inch Verbatim floppies in the past, and as I recall they were always pretty reliable. I don't seem to have Verbatim 3-1/2" types.

Kale,
I still play not only LPs and 45s but also 78s! You might try www.garage-a-records.com for replacement sylii.

I still have 8-tracks as well. For some reason they didn't become as popular in Britain as in the States, and there are many people these days who have no idea what they are!

Paul,
You mentioned the 8-track system,
was this a Mono or Stereo system?.
Did it use Ferro-Magnetic tape like in normal cassette tapes?.

So I take it you've never seen one...

The 8-track cartridge uses 1/4-inch wide magnetic tape in a large loop, with a single reel inside. It's a stereo system, and to hear the whole tape you run the loop through four times. The track width comes out about the same as for a cassette tape, but the 8-track runs at 3-3/4 i,p.s. (double the cassette's speed), so the frequency response and S/N ratio tended to be better.

The deck contains the motor-driven capstan, but the associated rubber pinch roller is fitted inside each cartridge.

Here's an 8-track tape with a compact cassette alongside for comparison:

If you look at the "business end," you can see the pinch roller on the left:


The "end" of the tape is marked by a short metal foil section. When this bridges two contacts it causes a solenoid to physically step the tape head into position for the next program. The four programs combined typically give about the same playing time as an LP record album.

You can fast forward the tape to advance or get back to the beginning of the loop, but there's no rewind facility. Players generally have a manual program select button so that you can start on any one of the four programs you want, or jump programs at will. If you leave it on continuous play, the cartridge just keeps repeating over and over, which made the system quite popular for background music in restaurants, etc.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-22-2003).]

Paul, that’s a great picture. In the US, the standing joke is that 8-track tapes are still sold at truck stops {where long-haul drivers eat greasy food and get diesel fuel for their rigs.}

Centuries before mp3 audio, there was heavy-duty pirating of music in 8-traack.

Bjarney,
I thought that the 8-track was "play only".
Could you record on these tapes as well?.
Just wodering, as I have never seen an 8-track tape recorder?.

Though nothing to do with floppy disks…

Trumpy—in the US, for the average Joe, yes—but there was still a big mom-and-pop storefront pirate trade. In competition with mass-duplication {pirated music} stores, in junior high school I worked part time for a “speed shop” repairing 4- and 8-track car stereos. The same store had a console with a pair of LP players and a tape transport. Then it was "legal" to bring in LPs for tape transfer, because the user license with LPs supposedly allowed for one 'personal-use' copy. The now-popular 1/7-inch audio cassettes were making headway, but at that time cassette audio quality was horrible. Unexpectedly in non-metropolitan areas, aftermarket tape players gained popularity in cars for its better fidelity where FM reception was usually marginal.

A future of digital-audio cloning through a phone line or TV coax [and something called “Internet”] would have been inconceivable.

I have an 8-track recorder which I picked up years ago. It was in need of a good clean-up and adjustment, new drive belt, etc., but was soon running fine.

I did a little Google searching and came up with this site: www.8trackheaven.com

Happy reading!

If my memory serves me right I recall Radio Shack made a Quad 8 track (4 channel) for awhile and also you could get Qaudaphonic LP'S for awhile

Quadrophonics seemed to be the "in thing" around the early-mid 1970s. The problem with the Quad LPs was there was no single standard, and the very high frequency response needed from the disc meant that some pretty fancy cartridges and stylii were needed to do the system justice.

The quad thing just seemed to quietly slip away into obscurity.....

For 8" Floppies, used 3M and Dysan (or was it Dyfsan?),

For 5¼" Floppies, used 3M, Imation and Verbatim,

For 3½" Floppies, use/used Verbatim, Imation, Maxell, Sony, and TDK.

Had only a small percentage of bad disks in all three sizes and from all manufacturers.
If a disk comes up with more than 9K bad after a full format (either full format in Windows, or using the DOS command "FORMAT A: /U - the "Unconditional" switch), then the diskette gets tossed in the recycle can.

Scott