Re: [Q] Disk Flipping and Two Disk???

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Albert D. Kallal wrote:

> Note that double sided disks on the apple where not like a pc drive that can 
> read both sides. Since your flipping the disk, then the matte material that 
> collects dust and dirt would actually releases the dust and dirt since the 
> floppy is actually spinning in the reverse direction when you flip it. This 
> is very much like rubbing a lint brush in reverse...it would release dirt. 
> (not a very good idea for the disk, or the drive head).

Although I am fully aware of this theoretical point, I have never seen a
diskette that had any significant amount of "dirt" on the liner that did
not have other problems.  The prime purpose of the liner is more to
reduce friction than "absorb" soil, which, after all, would be held in
contact with the rotating medium in any case!

In practice, "flippy" disks are just as reliable as single-direction
disks.

People made up lots of reasons about why this wouldn't work, but except
for the truly rare case of *single-sided* media, there was never any
actual evidence, since they work perfectly.

The rule for Apple 5.25" disks is "if it formats, it works"--and works
for a very long time.

Appleworks was distributed as a "flippy", as were most applications as
it became clear that there was no downside (except being able to access
only one side at a time--but you could always copy the back to another
disk if you needed that).

-michael

NadaNet file server for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."