9 Feb
2009
9 Feb
'09
12:20 p.m.
On Sun, 8 Feb 2009, Dan Gahlinger wrote:
And to me.
I've had brand-new floppy drives (alas, the modern cheap ones are
particularly bad) that are not in alignment according to my alignment
disk. THey;'re proaly 'good enough to work', but I'm not going to trust
my data to something like that.
And of course I repair floppy drives, particularly in classic computers.
Somtimes I need to dismantle something that will affect the aligmnet (a
case in point being the MPI drives used in some HP9826/9836 machines, the
dampers of which leak grease onto the chassis. To clean that up, you need
to dismantle the taut-band mechanism, losing the alignment). But in anty
case, if I am restoring a machine, I'll check the drive alignment, in the
same way that I check PSU voltages, monitor alingment, and so on.
so in the end does it really matter all that
much?
It does to me. When I do alignment, whether drive, or automobile
(sorry, Jay), I want to
set it as closely as I can to what it should be, not "out of spec,
but close enough to work most of the time".
Agreed. I want to get things at least as accurate as they were when the
unit was new. If not better.
-tony