David.Anderson@CMU-CS-G.ARPA (07/21/84)
I'm having trouble with an Apple disk drive (for an Apple ///, but the drive is mechanically the same as the Apple ][ drive, just different electronics). I suspect that the drive may be out of alignment, but I'm not really sure. Can anyone describe the symptoms of a mis-aligned drive, and tell me how to re-align it (I can probably borrow a scope or whatever it takes, but I don't know where to start)? The problem is that the drive sometimes can't reset itself back to track 0 -- it just gets stuck somewhere and doesn't seem to be able to get itself back on track. If I give the head a little nudge until it clicks back into the grove, then it works fine for awhile. I think that when the reset occurs the head is going a little too far, and that keeps things from getting lined up properly thereafter. Obviously I don't understand exactly what I'm talking about ... if someone out there is knowledgeable about disk drives I'd appreciate some help, pointers to published information, tips, whatever. Thanks, --david