25 Aug
1998
25 Aug
'98
1:49 p.m.
On <http://webreview.com/wr/pub/98/07/31/frames/index.html>,
Michael Swaine (of Dr Dobbs early days) writes:
When I first started writing full-time about computer
technology back in 1981, I worked with some suspicious
characters who have gone on to become legends in their own
minds. Folks like John Markoff, now holding the New York
Times to its well-known high standard of accuracy on all
topics technical, and John Dvorak, ubiquitous curmudgeon
and loose cannon on the media deck. At that time Dvorak
was launching a new column called Inside Track, and he
explained to me the hidden significance of the title:
"On disk platters," he said, "the inside track
is the least reliable one."
It was a very popular column.
Of which ancient systems was this true?
Today's CD-ROMs are the opposite, I've heard: as the head positions
to the outermost area of the disc, it tends to push dust along the
guides, and many CD drives accumulate a pile of dust out there,
preventing it from reaching "the end."
- John
25 Aug
25 Aug
4:59 p.m.
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text
Size: 1142 bytes
Desc: not available
Url :
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980825/7cf71aa7/at…
11:34 p.m.
On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
On drives that store the same number of bits/track - most floppies apart
from Commodore and Mac ones, most 'raw-interfaced' hard disks (ST506,
SMD, RK05, RL01, etc), the inner track has the smallest area storing each
bit (think about it, the inner track is shorter).
So, it's possible that the inner track is the least reliable. I've
certainly had more floppies fail on the inner tracks than the outer ones.
On the other hand, one of the outer tracks - the one that contains the
directory - is accessed much more frequently than any other. It is there
that I have experienced the greatest number of failures.
- don
donm(a)cts.com
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Don Maslin - Keeper of the Dina-SIG CP/M System Disk Archives
Chairman, Dina-SIG of the San Diego Computer Society
Clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology.
Sysop - Elephant's Graveyard (CP/M) Z-Node 9 - 619-454-8412
*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*
see old system support at http://www.psyber.com/~tcj
visit the "Unofficial" CP/M Web site at http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm
with Mirror at http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~cfs/cpm
"On disk platters," he said,
"the inside track
is the least reliable one."
It was a very popular column.
Of which ancient systems was this true? Today's
CD-ROMs are the opposite, I've heard: as the head positions
to the outermost area of the disc, it tends to push dust along the
guides, and many CD drives accumulate a pile of dust out there,
preventing it from reaching "the end."
Well, that problem is trivially solved by keeping the rails clean :-)...
Seriously, some drives do a full seek (heads to both endstops) at
spin-up. The RK07 certainly does. I suspect this would quite happily keep
the dust down. Maybe CD-ROMs should as well.
- John
-tony
26 Aug
26 Aug
12:25 a.m.
Don Maslin wrote:
On the other hand, one of the outer tracks - the one
that contains the
directory - is accessed much more frequently than any other. It is there
In most of its 5.25" and 8" incarnations, TRSDOS (we're talking half a
dozen operating systems here despite the common name) put the directory
track near the center for speed of access. The track generally
accessed by _marginal_ (and failing) equipment is is Track Zero, the
boot track.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
Bill Gates has this situation where the federal government wants him
convicted for attempting a monopoly. Has Bill considered responding
with a question as to why there's only one Justice Department?
9632
days inactive
9633
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
donm＠cts.com -
gram＠cnct.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com