On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, tcjam wrote:

> I'd have to agree with this, about a month ago I was getting these types
> of errors quite frequently so I did a shutdown -h now and ejected the
> removable ( a SyQuest EZ 135 ) cartridge only to find that the normally
> bronze (maybe a shade of gold) was blemished by a rather large black
> streak. After replacing the cartridge I no longer had these media errors.
> 
> I hope there is nothing wrong with your media but it's the first thing I'd
> check after seeing such errors.
> 
> BTW, What type of mechanism/medium does a JAZ drive use I know a ZIP is
> basically a *REALLY* dense floppy, and the EZ drives are actuall platters
> but what does a JAZ have?

A JAZ is basically a winchester disk, i.e. it's basically the platters 
from a hard drive, separate from the heads, motors, and other nice 
stuff.  The one major difference from a hard drive is that it isn't 
sealed, so risk of contamination is higher than with a normal, sealed 
hard drive.

	-Seth Miller