Re: Ressurecting Old Apple ][ disks

[mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning)]

Something else I forgot to mention was that you should try slowing down
the disk drive a bit before attempting to read the diskettes.  Why?
Basically it allows the read/write head a longer period of time to read
the information.  Nibbles Away used to have a disk speed tester.  When
you run this program you will get a little speedometer.  Set the speed
of your disk drive to about -0.5 and you may be able to read the diskette
whereas before you couldn't.

I forget (since I haven't run it in a while) how the speedometer is
marked.  But I believe it was marked in this way:

           -2    -1     0     1     2
            +-----+-----+-----+-----+
                        ^

So you want the little "^" to be somewhere between -1 and 0.  On my
disk drives the little "^" jumps back and forth somewhat (about a
0.1 movement both ways).  So you have to adjust the speed and then
sit back a while so things settle down, then you adjust it again until
the arrow is where you want it to be.

Hope this helps.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I sat upon the sands of time.  Watching the world.  And through my fingers
it all ran.  Like life.  Forever slipping away. - Mark Manning

mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov