[Coco] So, does anyone know where to get disk drives?

[Steven Hirsch]

On Mon, 2 Sep 2013, Gene Heskett wrote:

> Because of the differing widths of the track, AND the mechanical
> uncertainty of track zero positioning from drive to drive, changing the tpi
> on the disk can be a problem.  For that reason any such re-formating should
> be preceded by a bulk eraser so as to start with a truly blank disk.

+1 !

You would have to pry my doorstop of a Nortronics eraser out of my cold, 
dead hands.  It's one of the oldest pieces of gear I have and still a 
trusty standby.

As murderous as it is intended to be on magnetic media, I was quite 
surprised at how difficult it is to wipe a DLT 70 tape with the beast.  A 
few passes that suffice for the average video cassette have little to no 
effect on a DLT tape.  That's one of the main reasons I swear by its 
successor, LTO.  Since the LTO has a pre-written servo track, I've never 
tried to sacrifice one but expect it would be a bear (DLT drives can 
format from scratch).

Steve


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