Apple Floppy Drives (was: More Apple Pimpers)

From: Eric J. Korpela <korpela_at_ssl.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu Nov 8 10:54:54 2001

> > I have to agree with Dick. Simple and clever, yes, but Disk ][ was
> > not all that bullet proof. The mechanism was reliable. I rarely
> > recall failure of the mechanism. But I certainly recall disks being
> > rendered unreadable by leaving a disk in the drive when powering down.
> > Lifetimes of frequently used disks were on order of months, even if
> > the disks were write protected.
>
> What media were you using? Was it quality media or cheap crap you could
> buy in bulk? What was your physical environment like? Clean and free of
> dust and debris? How did you store your disks? In a temperature and
> humidity that was amenable with diskettes, as suggested by the
> manufacturer?

It was at a school, a generally clean and environmentally friendly area.
Disks were from assorted manufacturers. I'd have to go pull out some disks
to find out. The same disks were used in CP/M and TRS-80 machines and didn't
have as many problems. Diskettes were generally stored in plastic 10 disk
cases.

> > Later Disk ][ drives didn't seem to have as many problems. I assume
>
> Canwe have some dates here so we know what timeframes we are discussing?
> (re: "later Disk ][ drives").

I'd say that roughly 1981 would be the dividing line. I didn't keep a
journal, though.

> > I don't recall having as many problems with drives on other systems
> > with the exception of a Kaypro that would wipe most any disk over the
> > course of a couple hours. I only had access to the one Kaypro, so I
> > don't know if the problem was widespread.
>
> I would ask the same questions of you as above. Quality of media?
> Environment? Proper storage?

Identical.

> And I would add: well-designed software?

Didn't seem much correlated with what software was running, other than
machines running CP/M on softcards were especially prone to rendering
CP/M boot disks unbootable. I assume it had something to do with where
the heads were generally resting.

Eric
Received on Thu Nov 08 2001 - 10:54:54 GMT