Apple Floppy Drives (was: More Apple Pimpers)

I don't know if it was alignment (I think it was speed), but I had a program that you would run, and you would adjust the drive via a small pot IIRC until the program said it was correct (again, I think it was speed). I DO know that as my Drive ][ drives got older, I found I had to do this operation more and more to keep them functioning (when it needed adjustment, it would just fail to read a disk). I also used the Drive ][ primairly stacked next to my Apple ][+, with the monitor on top, or on a shelf just above (when I moved to a color TV with line in as a monitor, as it was just too heavy to safely place on top of the Apple). I never had problems (other than speed issues, or once a game wrote high scores to the disk despite being write protected). My company had a number of Apple II+'s with drive II's stacked on the Apple with the monitor on top of the drives, and non ever had a problem. I used an Apple IIe with a dual drive box that sat on top of the Apple, and the monitor (IIRC, greenscreen Apple branded) sat on top of the drives. Never had a problem with that setup. (and the previous owner only ever used it that way for years, and had no problems). And I am probably a good test of real world abuse to the Apple Drive ][ drives, as I was just a wee child, and I didn't follow any rules that I probably should have. (I always put the disk in the drive, closed it, and turned on the computer... I would pull disks out, and replace them while the drive was reading or writing, I would power off the computer or reset it during read/write, I didn't use dust sleaves, I touched the disk media directly, wrote with ball point pens on the disk labels AFTER putting them on the disk, I used cheap no name brand bulk disks of any kind, and used a hole punch to make them double sided... and at one point, even stapled a peice of paper to a disk... and that staple is the ONLY time I can think of that I screwed up a disk... two holes and a long dent will do that. So I would have to say, the Apple II disk system was pretty freakin' stable and reliable to put up with all my abuse) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>