Please contact Media Sciences if your questions are not answered on these pages. Diskettes should always be in a magnetically neutral condition before duplication. Erasure has different meanings that can be understood by examining the recording process.
Information is written by reversing the direction of a strong magnetic recording field.
This means that the magnetic recording field in the head gap, and the induced permanent magnetization in the disk, is always along the track. This only modifies directories and file allocation tables, leaving the format and files intact. Such a diskette is not in a magnetically neutral state and should never be used for high quality duplication. Another hazard of previously recorded disks results from poor radial track alignment. Existing off center tracks may not be fully trim erased in a properly aligned duplication drive, leaving residual data between tracks.