4 Oct
2024
4 Oct
'24
7:21 a.m.
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024, Chris Elmquist wrote:
Just curious if you had a known "good"
drive, a golden unit so to speak,
that was well aligned with an authentic alignment diskette-- could you
then use that drive to write plain old data diskettes that the downstream
users would then align their drives to?
Yes, that is what you do in practice. Although I have a bunch of alignment
disks for 5.25" 48tpi and 96tpi (and I guess for 8", too), you don't need
them for pure track alignment. I mean, the drive was once good. I can't
see how a solid drive can get out of alignment without physical impact.
The CBM floppy drives seem to a case of cheap drive mechanics. But I guess
that comes from the missing track 0 sensor, thus the head carrier
physically hits the chassis, and this can cause dealignment.
I also know the cats eye patterns etc. from disk drive alignment packs
(e.g. RK05 alignment cartridge). But do I _need_ them for track alignment?
Christian