jgpo@iwu1c.UUCP (John, KA9MNK) (01/13/84)
{text saver}
I have an application for my Apple //e with two standard Apple ][ disks
which requires that I leave power on for days at a time. The disks are
used only for booting. My biggest worry is a power failure. If I take
the disk out of drive 1, the disk motor will spin forever when power
comes back on. If I leave the boot disk in the drive, the machine will
reboot itself when power comes back on, thus saving the motor, but I worry
about leaving the R/W head loaded against the disk for long periods of time.
Is this a valid concern?
I'd be willing to ruin a diskette to save the drive motor, but I don't
want to ruin the head. (Sort of like robbing Peter to pay Paul).
Anybody out there have any good/bad/indifferent experiences with leaving
floppies in the drive for days/weeks at a time?
Thanks,
John Opalko
AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
...!ihnp4!iwu1c!jgpo
PS:
I'd *love* to buy a RAM disk emulator with battery backup, or (drool) a
20 meg Winnie with auto-retract, but I have all my $$$ allocated for
luxuries like food, clothing, etc. :-)spector@cmcl2.UUCP (01/14/84)
#R:iwu1c:-19100:cmcl2:13300001:000:684 cmcl2!spector Jan 14 15:19:00 1984 Well, I've had my Apple ][+ for about four years and have had times where leaving the machine on with diskettes in drives was a necessity... The only problems I've had were an occasional blown sector due to the Apple's power-up surge...and now and then a slightly warped diskette from uneven r/w head and pressure pad tension.. If you have a large number of cards in your apple, and you want to leave it turned on for extended periods, then a fan is an absolute MUST. Before I had my fan, over extended periods my Apple's memory would start to flake out..the only solution was to let the machine cool off for a while. Good Luck, David Spector New York University, CIMS