They're much like any other floppy drive, just bigger :P Reliability can be quite good, as the tracks are huge and far apart. I run several sets regularly and a

They're much like any other floppy drive, just bigger :P Reliability can be quite good, as the tracks are huge and far apart. I run several sets regularly and after the initial repair and burn-in phase, most of them require no adjustment for years. They do require cleaning, but using high-quality media really cuts that down. There are exceptions. Pertec 8" drive are terrible, for example. A friend who runs them regularly has added BNC jacks to the front of the enclosure to facilitate the necessary frequent alignments. The hub motors sometimes stall for no reason and will blow up the drivers if you don't open the drive door soon enough. One has to wonder how a company that did such an excellent job with 9-track computer tape drives screwed up floppies so badly!