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ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2017

Entry 1st March 2017: Post: 1


Six out of seven


Hi

I assembled my retrieved 1541 (or similar ) floppy drives 
for the C64 this morning to put them through their paces. 
I already had checked others which were now either back 
in store or being used like the two 1541-IIs. So I set too 
checking seven floppy drives. Amazingly after all these 
years six of the seven worked without problem. The seventh 
was working electronically, just not reading disks. A few 
of them worked without making very much noise at all. I 
swapped over one that I had been using for a much quieter 
model. I have tagged with with a little label and stated 
a date. They will be now checked regularly.

Treated myself to a bit of Tetris on 5.25” floppy which took 
a while to load. I then had a lesson from Commodore via one 
of their early educational tapes ( that’s tape cassette ) 
on loops and variables. I have set up two C64 stations now. 
I found a video scart connector that lets me use an Amiga 
monitor. I’m getting quite addicted to the whir of 5.25” 
floppy disks. Makes a change from the steady click of a 3.5”.

Well I’m good to go now. I have the machine and drives set so 
I can check them all regularly. I sense that if I switch the 
stuff on and use quite frequently there is less of a chance 
it falling over. In addition to the C64’s I have my vast army 
of Amigas plus the Checkmate all working. Plus I now have the 
Amstrad PC and CPC464 with monitors. I have a Spectrum, Spectrum+,  
ZX81, Atari Woody and my PS2 set up for gaming. And now I have 
the Acorn 3010, 3020, 5000 and 7000. I was tempted to set up 
an Atari ST but I think I might be selling myself short to the 
Amiga community if I go over to the dark side.


I tried one of my Spectrum Micro Drives yesterday but sadly 
like so many the rubber band has busted to that’s the end of 
that. I am kicking myself now for not keeping the equipment 
active. My Amigas that have been used every day since I had 
them show that by using the kit it is more likely to survive. 
Trick I found with the Amiga is not to plug and unplug and keep 
opening and closing the cases. If you own a 2.5” hard drive 
for any computer you really do need to fire it up quite regularly 
to keep it working. The 3.5” seem a bit more robust. Bit like 
kicking a British bike in truth. I got that 3.5” to finally 
work on the 2000 and its been working every day now when I 
switch the machine on.

As ever with retro I always wish I could go back in time and grab 
some goodies.

All part of the aging process.... not being able to go back. You 
can live in the past but not go there. Never mind.



scuzz



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