>From: John Maier <JohnAM@datastorm.com>
>Date: Thu, 22 Feb 96 14:22:00 PST

>I've seen these messages for years, and have never worried about them.   
> The file always seems to get on to the diskette okay.  I've seen this   
>error also when using dd.
>
>So, what is a soft error?

A soft error is one that goes away when you retry the read or write
that caused it.  Hard errors don't go away no matter how many times
you retry.  If you get a lot of soft errors, then you should clean
or replace your floppy drive.
-- 
Mike Long <mike.long@analog.com>     <URL:http://www.shore.net/~mikel>
VLSI Design Engineer         finger mikel@shore.net for PGP public key
Analog Devices, CPD Division          CCBF225E7D3F7ECB2C8F7ABB15D9BE7B
Norwood, MA 02062 USA       (eq (opinion 'ADI) (opinion 'mike)) -> nil