Needed: 1 IBM 8" alignment disk.

From: Dwight Elvey <elvey_at_hal.com>
Date: Mon Nov 29 19:17:34 1999

"John B" <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Before I find the highest building to jump off of, I though I might ask here
> first....
>
> I have a Sykes 7150 8" floppy drive (negibus PDP-8I) that I have invested a
> half and hour in and have solved *most* of it's problems... It finally talks
> to the PDP and I can select tracks, reset, read status, etc... once in a
> while read a sector.
>
> I need a single sided 128 byte record alignment floppy.
>
> When I do a read now, the drive stays busy forever looking for the sector I
> asked it for. (even if the head is on top of it). Since it was made in 1974
> with TTL chips it is only bright enough to sit there and *wait* for the
> correct data to come by. An alignment disk would make life a lot easier.

Hi
 Try formatting the disk. If you still can't read
back, an alignment disk won't help. Check that the head(s)
are clean and, if single sided, that the pressure pad is not
tilted. It is rare that the alignment is off unless someone
fiddled with it.
Dwight
Received on Mon Nov 29 1999 - 19:17:34 GMT