Fooling with floppy drives

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu Apr 8 21:37:57 1999

Steve Robertson wrote:
>
>
> I've never used the DYSAN alignment disks and would be really interested to
> learn more about them.
>
> How effective are they?
> What other tools do you need?
> How much do they cost?

While I have several analog alignment disks, I have yet to try and align a
disk drive using one. I typically use a program called QAFLOPPY that
utilizes a digital alignment disk, and as such no scope is needed. Can't
recall the name of the software company but they are the same ones that
published QSPlus. Just for clarification, we are talking IBM and IBM
compatable PC computers here. I have the digital alignment disks for 360K,
1.2 MB, and the 3 1/2" drives, and they work very well. It makes for a very
quick way of checking a drives alignment, and since the typical
out-of-alignment drive is in the radial direction, it is also fairly fast
and easy to align a drive when necessary. The alignment disks cost around
$50 each (or at least did when I got mine.)
Received on Thu Apr 08 1999 - 21:37:57 BST