Hi There are two write signals. One is write data and the other is the write gate. The write gate is like a write enable. It also turns on the erase signal the cleans the edges of the track that is being erased and over written. The drive has nothing to set the timing of the signals coming to it. You can not just directly use the recorded data without realigning the clock edges. This includes the possibility of write compensation as well. There are rules about when you use the compensation. It helps to understand a little about digital recording. The write signal just makes a bunch of static +- signal levels on the disk. When played back, the head only sees the transitions and not the levels. This means that the effective edge of the transition is what is important. When the signals are on the surface of the disk, they are a bunch of magnetic fields. They interact in such a way that there is an averaging or frequency loss if too many transitions are close together. Compensation helps to avoid this. It is best to put some compensation in both the receive an transmit ends. It is simpler is to just use it in the transmit ( or write ) circuit. This is what is done for writing higher density floppies. If you record all the info played back, you need to realign the timing and possibly add compensation. It is not an impossible task but does require some knowledge of the particular technology used for that floppy format. You also don't need to know what the data is, just what the rules are for placing levels on the disk. It is even conceivable that one can do a better job than the original controller did. One can do some test signals on that particular media and determine just how much compensation works best on each track! Like the 6 million dollar man, "we can rebuild you better than before". Dwight