Frequently Asked Questions About Flexible Disks

Please contact Media Sciences if your questions are not answered on these pages.

What is the accepted value or benchmark for error rates in duplication and interchange?

Duplicators are usually comfortable if yields are around 99%. Unfortunately, duplication yields do not reliably predict interchange. Estimates of field failure rates are in the 2-5% range. The great majority of these failures are not traceable to one cause. Instead they usually result from tolerance stackup.

Field failures are a serious problem since their estimated cost to the industry is $160 million each year. Yet duplicators seem to be satisfied if yields are acceptable. This attitude must change. Defect levels below 100 parts per million can be achieved using available material, equipment, and methods.

Intelligent control of diskettes, duplication drives, precomp tables, formats, and environments will produce amazing results when coupled with employee motivation and training. The automotive and semiconductor industries learned the hard way. Many survived because of U.S. government protection. Duplicators who believe they will also be protected may receive a rude shock.