Magnetic Media Problems
Users never fail to amaze me. It is so important to visit the person to
see what is happening. Many years ago I supported a client on an old
Vax system. In those days 10 1/2 inch floppy disks were used for
offline storage. I set up their backups and demonstrated the process to
them. They then carried on. About three weeks later I get a call. They
tried to restore from the backup disk but there was nothing on it. I
walked them through the process again, and had them verify the disk.
Backups are goog to go. I get a call the next morning, the backup disk
is kaput. I tried it again over the phone. The next day, same problem.
This is very strange so I go to their site and walk them through the
process. I double check the disk myself, everything is cool. I am
confident the backups will work the next day. As I am putting my coat
on and talking to the manager, I happen to see the data clerk out the
side of my eye, clamping the 10 1/2 disk to the side of his desk with a
big magnet. Doh!
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