Which track was least reliable?

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Wed Aug 26 08:43:11 1998

Don Maslin wrote:

>On the other hand, one of the outer tracks - the one that contains the
>directory - is accessed much more frequently than any other. It is there
>that I have experienced the greatest number of failures.

This is true for many operating systems on many computers. Often
in the 70's and early 80's drive manufacturers would put circuitry
in the drives that would randomly move the heads off the directory
tracks after a certain period of time of non-access. (I have
several Kennedy 14" SMD drives that will do this. They have the
nice feature of a clear enclosure so that you can see what exactly
the heads are doing at any point in time!)

Tim.
Received on Wed Aug 26 1998 - 08:43:11 BST