Charlie wrote:
"Andy McFadden" <fadden@fadden.com> wrote in message news:LZbAe.3697$p%3.22756@typhoon.sonic.net...In comp.sys.apple2 ApH <bidulecornu@hotmail.com> wrote:You are probably using a high-density 5.25" drive, which requires an index signal to actually return data. You have 2 options here: either you try to find a low-density 5.25" which works (not all drives work, I think mine is an Epson drive), or you cut a small part of the plastic casing of the disks so that the index hole can be "seen" by the drive on the second side. There should be a hole at the same spot as on the first side when you flip the disk. Well, it means actually two cuts, on both sides of the disk, and on the opposite of the "official" index hole. This is probably the easiest and quickest method.Isn't this a two-sided drive? If so, why can't it use the second head to read the back side?As Bill Garber mentioned the disk is spinning backwards. Also, I've been told that the second head on a PC drive is not in line with the first one. This means that several tracks on the back side of an Apple disk can't be read by the second head.
This is correct, the heads in a normal double sided drive is offset in regard to each other, in their distance from the center/edge.
There were flippy drives too (Aerocomp) which would probably spin backwards and had extra opto for detecting the index hole on the other side when accessing the other side. I don't know if there were an Apple version of this. I heard of this in conjunction with TRS-80.
The Wizardry disk would probably be "flippy", like the english version, and your pc would (unlike the Apple II) have problems with there being no hole for the index hole in the sleeve for the back side, the boot side.
I think ADT is a good way of making backups on pc, but then one would have had to have/get a serial card. It is what I do.
Too late for the original poster, but I add this anyway. -- Knut (swap see-sig with kr-lund for email)