You need to find the ROMs to upgrade your controller to 16 sectors. Frankly, it'll be about 300 times easier to just find a 16 sector disk ][ controller, as there are millions of them out there.
Of course, the drive may also be bad. If when powered on, it goes... <beep> clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack... whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....that is a normal sound.. the clack-clack is the head moving to track zero (there is no track zero sensor, so the card steps the head in the track 0 direction around 40 times, and that's the clacking sound you hear). After that, the whirring is simply the disk spinning; at this point the drive is trying to read track zero. If it fails, it'll continue to try to read it forever until you hit reset or shut down the machine.
If this is the sound you hear, and the system doesn't boot, either the disk itself is bad, or the drive or controller is bad.
You're best off getting a 16 sector capable controller, as 99.99999995% of the disks out there are 16 sector. Keep the 13 sector controller around, though, as those were rare and the fact that you have one is pretty spiffy.
-Z Richard Kilpatrick wrote:
Well, I decided to play with my ][ plus some more today. I have all the original tapes, unused, so I might get to play with software yet, but why?! I have a disc drive! Well... I have a Disk II that when booted, makes the chipmunk noise, then repeatedly 'whirrs' trying to move the head past track 0. It seems unable to read data. I opened her up, and inside is a 13-sector controller. I have Dos 3.2.1 plus and 3.2.1 standard. Neither disk works. My Silentype works, though. Where would I get more paper - fax machines? Annoyingly I have no more drives or cards, so I can't try a different drive. Any suggestions are welcome! Richard