Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

i purchased 2 disks with the sequencer o/s (one with 1.37 the other with 2.10)

when i load them into the drive they spin for about 10 seconds then the screen reads bad 
directory.  when i try to reload the screen reads not formatted.  subsequent attempts to 
reload will read not formatted until i re-power the synth and the cycle of bad directory then 
not formatted starts again.

because my sd is o/s 2.0 i decided to try formatting the 1.37 disk.... the drive lights up and 
the disk spins for a good long time then reads disk not formatted.

these disks i assume are 720 mb because they have 1 hole only.

the seller of the disks is sending another copy, but i'm curious if there are any diagnostics for 
the disk drive.  i'm assuming the drive is working as i get no other messages on my screen,

any suggestions?  

ps - i'm mac based not pc

Hi All

one thing we all tend to forget is CLEANING the disk drive.  My last 
Sd-1 used to ignore disks every now and then, I have a Verbatim 3.5" 
cleaning kit ("wet" style - NEVER use a dry one!!).  When ever it 
started failing to read a disk, I would break out the cleaning kit, give 
it a number of cleans, wait a while until it had dried, then off it went 
- perfect!! Good for another year or so. 

Some of our relics in this group must have drives that haven't been 
cleaned for 15 years or more!!!!! And they get worse with less use not 
more!! If you tend to use ram packs or a computer for data storage , and 
make very little use of the drive, the drive head will oxidise up of 
it's own accord.  Spinning a disk over the head in normal regular use 
does a bit of the routine maintainance for you.

Try that, you may get a very pleasant surprise!

cheers

Roger

--- In Ensoniq-VFX-SD@yahoogroups.com, Roger Campbell <roger17@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All
> 
> one thing we all tend to forget is CLEANING the disk drive.  My last 
> Sd-1 used to ignore disks every now and then, I have a Verbatim 3.5" 
> cleaning kit ("wet" style - NEVER use a dry one!!).  When ever it 
> started failing to read a disk, I would break out the cleaning kit,
give 
> it a number of cleans, wait a while until it had dried, then off it
went 
> - perfect!! Good for another year or so. 
> 
> Some of our relics in this group must have drives that haven't been 
> cleaned for 15 years or more!!!!! And they get worse with less use not 
> more!! If you tend to use ram packs or a computer for data storage ,
and 
> make very little use of the drive, the drive head will oxidise up of 
> it's own accord.  Spinning a disk over the head in normal regular use 
> does a bit of the routine maintainance for you.
> 
> Try that, you may get a very pleasant surprise!
> 
> cheers
> 
> Roger
>
thanks - i have a cleaner on order - when it arrives i'll try it out.