IMSAI 8080

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Wed Jun 24 18:18:21 1998

On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, Hans Franke wrote:

> > On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Allison J Parent wrote:
> >> <Shure, but where ? Just on a disk ? I already have the problem
> >> <that I can't read some fd's of the early 80s. Even APPLE II disks,
> >> <althrough I always said that a DISK ][ drive could read and write
> >> <anything including Bierdeckl (beer mats/coasters).
>
> >> Disks on good equipment are as reliable as Magtape.
>
> > Better, I think, as with disks you need not be concerned with layer to
> > layer adhesion or layer to layer transfer.
>
> Maybe I shoud take some damaged 5,25" disks to the VCF
> to show the effects of fd aging. It's a real mess when
> the magnetic surface is tearing down. I have dozends
> of deffect _mecanical_ disks and already ruined five
> drives - and it took me about 6 hours (and one damaged
> head) to clean one and get it back working.

My experience with that failure mode has been largely limited
to 8" Verbatim floppies. They supposedly had a 'lubricated'
surface to ease head wear. Don't know whether that idea worked
or not, but they sure mucked up a couple of heads for me on a
temporary basis. Spoiled some file transfer too! I learned a
strong lesson from that, though. Do a disk copy before you try
to read individual files!
                                                 - don
 
Received on Wed Jun 24 1998 - 18:18:21 BST