Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!greg
From: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Newsgroups: net.micro.apple
Subject: Re: Apple 2 disks
Message-ID: <3277@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Aug-86 20:12:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.3277
Posted: Wed Aug 20 20:12:03 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Aug-86 20:24:16 EDT
References: <283@ski.UUCP> <2245@brl-smoke.ARPA> <5517@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 31
Summary: 

In article <5517@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> langbein@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (John E. Langbein) writes:
>To Spin a Disk Backwards means you flip the Floppy over to the other
>side. Apple drives don't use the guide hole.
>			John

Yes. Hmm. I know of a couple of problems with this:

(1) In normal use, a floppy turns in one direction only, causing any dust
 in the jacket to  get caught in the lining. If you flip the disk, the
 dust is drawn out again by the opposite rotation.

(2) In a real double-sided system, the tracks on one side are offset by
 half a track from the tracks on the other side, so when a track is written
 on side A it falls halfway between two tracks on side B. This is done so
 that the write operation will not weaken the recording on the opposite side.
 Obviously this does not happen when you flip your disk. This would not
 be a problem for disks which are rarely (or never) written - e.g. most games.

I should add (3) most people do this with SS certified disks, but obviously
they deserve their disk errors which are surprisingly rare.

Point (1) can be minimized by being very careful about dust, which of
course is a good idea anyway. Still, I know several people with large
collections of games on 'flipped' disks, many of which 'used to work'.


-- 
"You'll need more than a Tylenol if you don't tell me where my father is!"
						- The Ice Pirates
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Smith     University of Toronto      UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg