Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: D Finnigan Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2.programmer Subject: Re: floppy disk question Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 22:39:08 -0000 (UTC) Organization: Mac GUI Lines: 35 Message-ID: References: <1f873195-e466-4da9-8237-c708f560b26d@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2017 22:39:08 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="2a1d2e4640ae54e1ddc799e172027e10"; logging-data="17806"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/Fc2UX1p/SKTFcmJI286Mw" User-Agent: Mac GUI Usenet In-Reply-To: <1f873195-e466-4da9-8237-c708f560b26d@googlegroups.com> Cancel-Lock: sha1:CRw1kDZi5XJT+X5cOb+yzobC9xU= Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.apple2.programmer:3239 Mark Lemmert wrote: > > Based on my online research of floppy disk schematics it sure looks to me > like any DS/DD disk should be able to be used as a flippie disk in an > Apple > II computer, but before I buy a large quantity, I was wondering if anybody > can over a perspective on this? > This is a topic that can be made as simple or as complicated as we want to make it. I'll skip technical features of the Disk II drive relative to single-sided vs double-sided, and will leave that to others, but I'll say this: I've read the "historical" discussions on flippy disks on Usenet from the 80s and 90s and the one interesting point that was brought up a few times is that when you physically flip a disk, suddenly the magnetic media is rotating in the opposite direction. If there's dust buildup in the felt padding/liner inside the plastic sleeve, suddenly the media is dragging *against* the dust instead of *with* the dust. The point here being that the effects of this reversal may be something that wears out the recording surface faster, such as by digging a nice gouge in the media. My own personal experience is that the best way to put a nice gouge on the disk surface is by using the disk in a drive that has a dirty head. I've got a lot of disks now 30 years old, nearly all flippy, and haven't had problems that I believe were related to flipping them. -- ]DF$ The Marina IP stack for Apple II-- http://marina.a2hq.com/