1541 Alignment disk

NO! NO! NO! What you can get PRODUCED by a normal drive, is a NORMAL disk. What you can get PRODUCED by a normal drive, is a NORMAL disk. What you can get PRODUCED by a normal drive, is a NORMAL disk. You CAN NOT produce an alignment disk using a normal drive with a normal controller. You CAN NOT produce an alignment disk using a normal drive with a normal controller. You CAN NOT produce an alignment disk using a normal drive with a normal controller. WORTHLESS. What you create with the normal controller with normal drive is a NORMAL disk. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT AN ALIGNMENT DISK! A "digital alignment disk" is a disk produced using a special drive, that DELIBERATELY has sectors written OUT OF ALIGNMENT, in order to see which sectors (HOW FAR OUT OF ALIGNMENT, AND IN WHICH DIRECTION) can be read by the drive. Doing so provides a "reasonable" level of measurement of how far out of alignment the drive is, and which direction. A disk written with a NORMAL drive is aligned for that drive, and can NOT check anything except whether a given drive is close enbough to alignment with the drive that created that disk to be able to reade it. People who think that THAT is "correct alignment" really don't give a shit whether the drive is accurately aligned, or where within the range that succeeds in reading THAT disk it might be. It is "close enough" to be able to read/recover disks written by that drive; it is NOT acceptable for writing disks, particularly for distribution, or even exchanging with other people who have been doing the same, and have drives ELSEWHERE in the range that reads THEIR "known good" disk. It is a BAD, STUPID IDEA! If you take a yardstick, and use it to make marks on a stick, and then use that stick to make marks on another stick, and continue to use each stick to make the marks on the next stick, HOW MANY sticks can you make that you would claim are accurate? Disunirregardless of the alignment of the drive, ANY disks created by that drive are aligned to that drive - they are ABSOLUTELY NOT a graduated and calibrated series of misalignments - they are ALL aligned to that drive. Yes, "piracy" programs (blow it out your ass if that offends you), can make a "copy" of the disk. But THAT "copy" is aligned to that drive, it is NOT an alignment disk, and is absolutely totally useless for checking alignment of anything. An "analog" alignment disk can not be created with a "normal" controller/drive combination. Instead of "normal" digital data/sectors, it has SPECIAL tracks written by special hardware. They are analog tracks, containing signals for testing drives, and a normal drive/controller can read them, but can NOT write them. So, anybody who claims to "duplicate" an alignment disk with stock hardware, disunirregardless of what software is used, is an ignorant asshole.