Making hard sectored disks

Here is the instructions for making the disks. Keep in mind as you read this that one of my personal mottos is that if I could write I'd be a writer. Some of the directions are clearer if you are actually doing it as you read them. .............. CUT HERE ................................. PROCEDURE FOR CREATING HARD SECTORED FLOPPY DISKS FROM SOFT SECTORED FLOPPY DISKS by Doug Coward For some time now I've thought about the possiblity of creating my own hard sectored mini-floppies so that I would not have to rely on being able to find disks at surplus and thrift shops as they became more and more scarce. It seem to me that the only difference between a hard sectored disk and a soft sectored disk should be the number of index holes. So I tried making 3 disks and they worked. So far this technique has only been used to create double density 10 sector hard sector disks but there is no reason I can think of that would keep this same technique from working to create single density or 16 sector disks. Currently, I don't own a Wang or any other computer that would use a hard sectored 8" diskette, so I will not be able to test this procedure on the larger diskettes. When I have more time, I plan to try and use the pieces of an old floppy disk drive to build a "punching gig" to make the process of punching the index holes easier. MATERIALS NEEDED 1 1/8" round hand operated paper punch 1 Soft sectored 5 1/4" floppy disk 1 Hard sectored 5 1/4" floppy disk to use as a template. 1 Plain piece of white paper 2 Pieces of 1/2" wide x 1/2" long clear adhesive tape. The normal index holes from my measurements appear to be between 3/32" and 4/32". So I decided to use a 1/8" punch which will make the holes oversize by about 1/64" but should not make any great difference. Most paper punches are 1/4" so you will need to go to a large office supply store to find this punch (like Office Max). The punch I purchased had a plastic piece over the "female" jaw of the punch to catch the material punched out. This I removed so that I could see through the "female" jaw of the punch to center the punch on the index hole. PROCEDURE The difficult part of punching the disk is guaranteeing the placement of the holes. That is why I use a hard sectored disk as a template. 1. With the two pieces of tape ready, take and rotate each diskette in its jacket until an index hole is visible in the center of the index hole aperture in the jacket. 2. Place the hard sectored disk on top of the soft sectored disk so that the two visible index holes line up. 3. While holding the diskettes together, insert 3 finger tips of one hand through the hub opening applying a slight outward pressure to align the hubs of the two disks. If the index holes are not aligned go back to step 1. If they are slightly out of alignment use the point of a pin or any object that can be inserted through the two index holes and wiggled to realign the index holes. 4. With the hubs and the index holes aligned, firmly pinch together the two diskettes with your other hand, at the hub. Remove your 3 fingers out of the hub. 5. While still pinching the diskettes together, apply 1 piece of tape to the diskettes at the hub so that the tape wraps around through the hub opening and sticks to both diskettes BUT NOT THEIR JACKETS. Apply the other piece of tape across the hub opening from the first piece of tape in the same manner. 6. At this point the two diskettes should have their hub openings and one index hole perfectly aligned. Also they should be securely taped together but still be able to rotate in their jackets. It's important that the jackets be more or less aligned with each other while punching the holes or you can finish with some extra holes in the "new" diskette's jacket. You can, if you need to, use a small piece of tape across the edge of the two jackets in one corner to keep them aligned. 7. Now you're ready to punch some holes. Holding the two diskette jackets in one corner with one hand, insert 2 fingers of the other hand into the hub opening and rotate the diskettes until an index hole in the top diskette (the hard sector template disk) appears in the center of the index hole aperture of the jacket. Hold the diskettes "template disk up" so that the index hole aperture is on the other side of the hub opening from you (away from you). 8. Insert the piece of plain white paper between the diskettes from the side closest to the index aperture until you can see the paper through the index hole in the diskette. This is to make the index hole more visible. 9. Now with the jackets aligned, and the index hole (with the paper visible) in the center of the index aperture, insert the paper punch through the hub opening so that the "female" jaw is positioned above the index hole and the "male" jaw positioned below the index hole. You will have to bend the diskettes slightly to get a clean punch. As you slowly close the jaws of the paper punch you will be able to sight through the "female" part of the punch and line up the punch exactly to the existing index hole. This is where the plain white paper really helps to see that index hole. PUNCH THE HOLE. 10. Repeat steps 7,8,9 until you have punched all of the holes. Remember to keep rotating the diskettes in the same direction after punching each hole. Reposition the paper before punching each hole. When done, peel the tape off carefully, most diskettes today don't have a hub reinforcement ring and the hub opening can be stretched or distorted. If you are careful the template disk over and over again. .............. CUT HERE ................................. ========================================= Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com Senior Software Engineer Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA Curator Museum of Personal Computing Machinery http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum =========================================