jmacz
Well-known member
Normally I haven't bothered too much with the floppy drives (aside from getting them kinda working and ejecting), but now that I have two disk centric models (512K and Plus), I have been getting more and more annoyed with the lack of consistency across the floppy drives in my 11 vintage Macintoshes. A few of them seem to have zero problems sharing disks with each other, but the rest are sketchy.. partially work, totally don't work, etc. I believe it's tied to the zero track alignment where depending on which direction it's off, you'll get some of the machines unable to share disks with others.
While I wait for a replacement screw for my external 400K drive, I decided to take a look at some of my other floppy drives.
What technique/strategy have you used to ensure your floppy drives are working to near factory spec?
For now, I've been doing the following using Disk Copy 4.2:
Is there a better technique? Is it better to use the Floppy Drive test on MacTest Pro? (although not an option my older Macs that don't have a 68030 and thus not supported by MTP). What have you guys done? Or do I have massive OCD and none of the rest of you care?
While I wait for a replacement screw for my external 400K drive, I decided to take a look at some of my other floppy drives.
What technique/strategy have you used to ensure your floppy drives are working to near factory spec?
For now, I've been doing the following using Disk Copy 4.2:
- Read a known working commercial floppy disk and note the tag checksum and data checksum.
- Make a duplicate, lock it, and then read it to get its tag checksum and data checksum.
- Compare the result and ensure it's spot on.
- Use both the original commercial floppy and the duplicate on the next floppy drive, check both sets of checksums on both floppies. Then start with the duplication step again.
- Do the above for 400K, 800K, and 1.4MB floppies (depending on what the floppy drive supports).
Is there a better technique? Is it better to use the Floppy Drive test on MacTest Pro? (although not an option my older Macs that don't have a 68030 and thus not supported by MTP). What have you guys done? Or do I have massive OCD and none of the rest of you care?