In a message dated 12/1/02 12:29:00 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >Well, first of all, ANY storage medium will fail if physically broken. > >(you can re-assemble paper and clay tablets, but those are a bit hard >to keep digital records on ;-) That said, CD's are certainly fragile if > >mishandled, but no more so than any other form of removable storage, >when kept out of the hands of 2-year olds. They certainly survive >longer than floppy disks, zip disks and other removable storage media. > >Heck, I just took an AOL disk that I've been using as a *coaster*, >literally, washed the coffee stains off of it, and put it in my CD. It > >read fine. > >You're right that you do have to be careful about scratching the top >layer, though. However what you see on a CD IS, in fact, usually a >fairly rugged protective lacquer coating over the layer of aluminum >providing a reflective surface for the laser in the CD. With normal >handling, it's hard to scratch it. Biting it, though, is likely to >cause it to fail, because it not only scratches the reflective foil >layer, it also distorts the disk. > >See: <http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/cdbasics/cd_specs.htm> > >CDR's and CDRW's are also fragile in this fashion, and on cheap ones >the foil layer is quite thin and easily scratched, and the dye layer >underneath that is considerably more fragile than the molded in pits on > >a production CD. > >If your CD drive likes them, paper labels, such as from CD-Stomper are > >actually quite protective (though slight misalignments of them will >give high-speed drives fits). > >But because they don't survive in the hands of 2-year olds, doesn't >mean they're 'unreliable'. Heck, very little human technology other >than Tonka Trucks can pass that test ;-)
I understand your point, however I do remember my kids when they were babies my son inserted a disk inside my Mac IIci and there was already a disk there, so he forced it in. It became stuck. I remember I wanted to save the contents of the disk so badly that I took a flat screwdriver and pulled it carefully. Both disks were ok! and still are, I still have them with my 3.5 disk collection I still keep with the label all broken from the moment I pulled it out. Of course nothing is undestructable but what my babies did with the 3.5" was usually insert them inside the drive, like they knew that little flat thing belonged inside the computer :) Still in seven years that I did the converssion to CDs, I've had at least 12 go bad on me, one of them a Lamb Chop collectible CD which I luckily copied into my Mac before but 2 of the tracks of the CD went bad, now I can see through a tiny dot on the surface even though the rest of the CD is perfect and I've always been so careful with it :(. In pretty much the same time (five to seven years) only ONE Zip disk has gone bad on me. And that was because I formatted with HFS+ after some people on the Quadlist adviced me NOT TO. I learned my lesson, the Mac running 8.1 crashed when I was reading the disk, and all the Macs I tried to read the disk in would crash as well, inlcuding a PB 5300. I don't know but it could have been either a bug of the OS 8.1 driver, or who knows what! The disk is still in great shape since I formatted it after unpluggin the zip drive while the computer was reading it, the glorious "this disk is unreadable by this Macintosh" dialog appeared and upon pluggin back the zip drive and choosing "initialize" it worked miraculously! That's how I saved the disk, now I never do HFS+ on Zip disks. I sure Iearned my lesson. Liliana -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
