01-28-2016, 07:08 AM
I just received my ACCURITE AAD 5.25 disk, model 206-34. Thanks for the suggestion.
Because I am attempting alignment for the first time, before I screw anything up let me confirm a few things and ask some questions:
- I don't want to insert this disk into a drive with a bad head, for fear of scratching it. It is recommended therefore to test the drive first with an expendable disk. What evidence disqualifies a head? Scratches? Anything else?
- I haven't seen a listing of the disk's contents; there's nothing on the label except alignment data, and I haven't stuck the disk into a drive and entered DIR, but I don't think there's an exerciser program included with this disk. Instead I can use Dunfield's ImageDisk program with the Align/Test option selected. Is there any other program suitable to the task?
- I want to avoid using any OS but plain old DOS for this exercise because I have heard, anecdotally, that the later Microsoft OS versions take the liberty of writing info to the disk, which Accurite warns against.
-Is there any value to creating an .scp image before doing anything else with the disk? I think to have any value the SCP image would have to be written back using the same unaltered drive, but I'm not sure that would be accurate enough for future use.
- I have a scope and I have some technical / repair data for some manufacturers; TEAC and Tandon, for example. But I have Chinon, Fujitsu and Panasonic drives as well. I will need to know where to ground and where to probe while looking for alignment signals. Is there a repository of tech information somewhere that I could reference?
Thanks for any suggestions.
-CH-
PS: I now have a load of Atari ST programs on 3.5 inch disk, including a copy of CopyIIST... Did you work on that title?
Because I am attempting alignment for the first time, before I screw anything up let me confirm a few things and ask some questions:
- I don't want to insert this disk into a drive with a bad head, for fear of scratching it. It is recommended therefore to test the drive first with an expendable disk. What evidence disqualifies a head? Scratches? Anything else?
- I haven't seen a listing of the disk's contents; there's nothing on the label except alignment data, and I haven't stuck the disk into a drive and entered DIR, but I don't think there's an exerciser program included with this disk. Instead I can use Dunfield's ImageDisk program with the Align/Test option selected. Is there any other program suitable to the task?
- I want to avoid using any OS but plain old DOS for this exercise because I have heard, anecdotally, that the later Microsoft OS versions take the liberty of writing info to the disk, which Accurite warns against.
-Is there any value to creating an .scp image before doing anything else with the disk? I think to have any value the SCP image would have to be written back using the same unaltered drive, but I'm not sure that would be accurate enough for future use.
- I have a scope and I have some technical / repair data for some manufacturers; TEAC and Tandon, for example. But I have Chinon, Fujitsu and Panasonic drives as well. I will need to know where to ground and where to probe while looking for alignment signals. Is there a repository of tech information somewhere that I could reference?
Thanks for any suggestions.
-CH-
PS: I now have a load of Atari ST programs on 3.5 inch disk, including a copy of CopyIIST... Did you work on that title?