1 Sep
2001
1 Sep
'01
6:37 a.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
You might be thinking of the RX50 dual 5.25"
drive. This is a
single-sided unit which takes 2 separate floppy disks. They rotate in
opposite directions (due to a belt that runs over both sides of the
chassis) but as the lower disk is inserted label side down, in fact each
disk rotates the 'standard' way and can be read/written on other machines
without problems.
Jerome Fine replies:
But as far as the head is concerned, the direction of rotation is the same
on a relative basis - which is why a floppy written in the top drive
can still be read in the bottom drive.
Actually, I think the best use for an RX50 drive is what my grandson
did one day - took a VERY LARGE SLEDGE HAMMER and ...
Other than a CPU, DEC never seemed to manage to make decent
hardware the first time around. Even the software had bugs that
were really dumb. Of course, compared with M$, DEC software
was Platinum compared to Tin (is there anything less than tin?).
[But since DEC was bought in 1996?, that is OT]
I've never seen a floppy drive that reverses the
direction of the spindle
rotation when side 1 is selected.
Actually, just for fun, one day I punched the extra holes into an RX50
floppy, turned it over (did a Low Level Format in a different drive)
and ran it as a flippy - I still have a couple that I use for demos.
So instead of reversing the direction of the spindle, I reversed the
direction of the media (Grin>).
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine