19 Jan
1999
19 Jan
'99
2:13 p.m.
On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Marvin wrote:
I saw this and thought others on the list might be
interested. This machine
was discussed a while back, but I don't recall if it was on this list or
with some other person. IIRC, the disks are special and come pre-formatted
in a way that is not easy to duplicate. A friend of mine has one along with
disks and software, and I *think* the manual. If anyone has successfully
formatted disks for use with the Robbie, I would be most interested in
finding out how!
I doubt that it is feasible without specialized and expensive equipment.
The disks are 192tpi and contain a prerecorded servo track to permit
tracking that density. The Drivetec (later Kodak/Verbatim) drives
carried two motors for head positioning. A normal stepper for rough
positioning, and a servo motor for 'vernier' positioning. The latter
tended to be rather busy when reading! Kaypro got about 2.3mb, IIRC, out
of them. Kodak in later development doubled that and then doubled it
again. However, they were never really a significant piece of the
removable storage market.
One problem, with the Kaypro units anyway, was that disk destruction was
quite common. They could wipe out a directory before you knew you were
in trouble.
- don