2 Oct
2007
2 Oct
'07
6:39 a.m.
I developed a very rough but surprisingly functional
test for bad
alignment; putting a little pressure on the head carrier (or spiral disk)
to move it a tiny amount in each direction was often enough to bring track
zero close enough to alignment that the drive would spring into life. If
that worked, at least I knew that the drive was basically functional, and
probably just needed an align. I also need to track down info on how to
align those spiral-disk-head-drive type mechanisms (Shugart? or were they
ALPS? I forget). I used to know this stuff once, but that was a long time
ago, and it's just not coming back on its own.
A very common procedure here in Brazil in the apple days: Put the drive
to be aligned as the #2 drive. Load up Locksmith 6 on the drive 1 and try to
read a disk in drive 2. Loose the screws on the stepper motor and turn it
cw/ccw up when all the sectors read right. Try 2 or 3 different disks
(commercial software is great for that!) and tight the screws. You're done!