[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Using both sides of DS DD disks

Wow! Never realized that, even if I opened up my drive for minor speed adjustments. So, the arm being lowered when we shut the drive 'door' is just a pressure pad since the r/w head is under the diskette right?
I relied on a paper hole puncher to make diskettes work on both sides. My friend had a write-protect defeat switch on the front panel of his drive - no notch required!. Never had problem unless when I tested my luck with single sided flippies. Some had bad sectors but this is odd if the Apple 5.25 drive really write on the wrong side.
Floppies and drives were expensives at first. A two-drive Apple 2+ was a cool thing. Single drive operation was a pain with CP/M since PIP didn't notice disk swaps. 

Computers were so simple in that time...sigh.


Yves

Greg Weston wrote:


In article <3DC1A8EE.C0A51B57@usa.net>, Jeff Thomas <a2forever@usa.net>
wrote:



Finally, is there really something about flipping a disk to record on the
"wrong side" that endangers data on the "right side" as someone suggested in
a previous post?


All 5.25inch floppy disk drives on Apple II support double sided diskettes.

To use the back of the disk, you'll need a notch in same position, but on the
opposite side. Reading that disk, involves flipping it over onto it's back.



It's worth noting at this point that Apple II 5.25" drives write on the
"wrong" side. If you have a single-sided disk, the label side is the
one that was tested, but Apple II drives wrote to the bottom of an
inserted floppy.

G (Who installed toggle switches on his Disk ][ drives to defeat write
protection on-demand.)