Same disk, two drives...bad head alignment?

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bizzybeever
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Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:04 pm

Same disk, two drives...bad head alignment?

Post by bizzybeever »

I'd like an experienced HxC/floppy user to have a look at two SCP files of the SAME DISK created with two different drives...
  • Drive 1 "good" - Mitsumi D539W Combo Drive (brand new in packaging)
  • Drive 2 "bad" - TEAC FD-505 Combo Drive (used)
  • Test Disk - A factory-made, 180 kB (40-track), single-sided 5.25" disk (Wishbringer, by Infocom).
In HxC, the dump from the good drive is browsable and can be exported to a working IMG for DOSBox. The dump from the bad drive cannot be browsed and produces a non-working IMG file.

Using the Track Analyzer, I used the edit tools to "remove odd tracks". This exposed differences between the drives. Specifically: the bad one has junk in Track 39 and what's in Track 0 is what the good one has in Track 1. In other words, it seems like the head of the TEAC drive is out of alignment by an entire track (well, two if we're talking 80 high-density tracks).

Am I interpreting these files correctly? I'm brand new to both HxC and this forum. I'd really appreciate some insight into what's wrong with the TEAC drive...and subsequently if I should attempt to fix it!

Jeff
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Re: Same disk, two drives...bad head alignment?

Post by Jeff »

bizzybeever wrote:
Mon Jan 09, 2023 8:52 pm
Am I interpreting these files correctly? I'm brand new to both HxC and this forum. I'd really appreciate some insight into what's wrong with the TEAC drive...and subsequently if I should attempt to fix it!
Yes the interpretation is correct. It appears that the track 0 position is wrong on the Teac drive. Maybe you just need to clean it. There is a an optical sensor in the drive that set the physical track 0 position.

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