Disk ][ Speed Testing - need troubleshooting advice

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Disk ][ Speed Testing - need troubleshooting advice

I'm running Copy II plus v8.2 on two Disk ][ drives using an Apple IIe (I copied it over to the apple IIe disk using ADT). I suspect I have bad 5.25 disks that I mail ordered recently. However, I'm checking the drive speed to be sure. Drive 1 is successful in initializing the new disks 90 percent of the time. Disk 2 is almost never successful. Disk 2 sounds crunchier than disk 1 when it reads and writes and tries to init a disk. Disk 2 has been opened and checked for head dirt, it is clean.

Should the speed test be on a newly initialized disk or on any disk that has been used and is write-able? If the Copy II plus Drive Speed test is on write-able disks that have already been written to then the results are...

Disk 1:
Speed: 199.8 MS consistent.

Disk 2:
Speed: 199.3 MS consistent.

The only weird part of the test was when I used brand newly formatted disks. When I put in the brand newly formatted disks and ran the test the disk 2 drive speed fluctuated wildly between 199 and 67. The drive 1 fluctiations were between 199 and 007. I think I saw that right. Once the test got going, the drive speed evened out to 199 for each drive. I'm using the same disk in each drive for each test.

-thanks

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Last seen: 11 years 2 weeks ago
Joined: Feb 1 2009 - 14:44
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My question is...

What I'm curious about is if it is the drive or the disks that cause the read and init probems ( less problems in drive 1 than drive 2)? Drive 2 seems to have a few read problems, but I think the new disks are worse. -thanks

A2forever's picture
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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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Hmm

Has anyone had any sucess using Copy ][ Plus setting drive speeds to 200 ms? I have never tried this , but I know that on the rear of the Disk ][ 's there is a pot that you can adjust while using Copy ][ Plus , and put in a blank diskette and adjust the Drive's speed? Also , I have had a alot of luck with reading and write problems , due mainly because of the drive's head being dirty. I used Alcholhol and a cue tip , and it cleaned it up nicely. I know I should use 100% if I could find that , and medical swobs , but you know how it goes.....

See ya.

Patrick.

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Joined: Jun 5 2008 - 07:26
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If the numbers returned are a

If the numbers returned are anywhere with 5 or 10 milliseconds of 200, speed of your drive is shouldn't be causing any issues. I would guess that any results between 185 and 215 MS per revolution would work perfectly well. In fact, I did some tests with APTEST and found that I could still read disks when the speed was adjusted practically off of the scale shown on the screen.

As for the inconsistent results with new disks, I would suspect a head dragging or sticking to surface of the floppy.

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Last seen: 8 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: Dec 19 2003 - 18:53
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Head cleaning

-Blow out the years of collected dust, hair, crumbs, etc. with compressed air

-Use only anhydrous (without water) alcohol (available at electronic or chemical supply stores).

-Use a Q-tip wrapped in a nylon stocking to apply the alcohol/ rub off any residue.

Mutant_Pie

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Blank Disks...

Try Here. Smile

http://www.athana.com/html/inquiry.html

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