Atari 1050 Disk Drive Care Tips and Questions
So i've really been enjoying my 1050 DD. I did notice that it's just a little more finicky then carts as far as reliability goes, and though it's amazing how many of them work (considering their age) I have received a few bad disks in the mail recently. Last night I heard some squealing and squelching noises coming from the device and had a "boot error" on the screen. My concern is that one of the rings thats glued to the inside of the data disk (pictured) may have come off in there and is gu
I've found a lot of issues with disks not booting / starting to get bad sectors, are due to combinations of the disks physically not turning, and the 1050's pressure pad that rests on them being worn away.
You can try roughing up the surface of the pad a bit with the end of a paperclip. I have replaced a few with some made from old cassettes but they don't seem to last too well. This is covered in "Don't Dump Your Drive" article in Page 6 magazine Issue #75 If anyone has some proper spares p