From: joe@user.com   
      
   Well, yeah.  You can do almost anything.  Even read a sector, with some   
   simple commands.  (It would be tough to keep up with the read or write   
   though).   
      
   Just to see if the drive starts you should be able to select the drive.  You   
   should also be able to seek and check for home with simple commands.   
   I'd have to go get a book to figure out how to do it, but it's not hard to   
   do.  Depending on how extensive you want to test, you could do a simple   
   program that you type in.   
      
      
   "Ira"  wrote in message   
   news:esgq459id6ggnrb51r51qv7tnd4birbbcd@4ax.com...   
   > My 'problem' is more everyone elses problem.  I have seen a spate of   
   > people asking me for boot disks (which I prepare from my dwindling   
   > supply of 5.25" disks and mail off; at my cost) only to hear that   
   > their drive doesn't work.   
   >   
   > Since I would just as soon NOT waste the disks or the postage on   
   > systems with bad drives, I was wondering if there were OUT commands to   
   > spin the drive up, for example ... basically to do what is possible   
   > with the person having NO floppy disks.   
   >   
   > Thanks   
   >   
   > On Thu, 2 Jul 2009 18:47:42 -0400, "Mike Y"  wrotf:   
   >   
   > >   
   > >"N Morrison"  wrote in message   
   > >news:b8229659-6728-4240-8ad3-da14afe824cb@b14g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...   
   > >>On Jun 30, 5:14 pm, Ira  wrote:   
   > >>> There has been a recent uptick in people getting TRS-80's only to find   
   > >>> out that the disk drives do not work AFTER getting diskettes.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Does anyone know how to get as good a gauge as to whether the floppy   
   > >>> drive works or not, short of having a boot disk? This applies to Model   
   > >>> I and III/4.   
   > >>   
   > >>There was a catseye disk which read out the drive condition on screen.   
   > >>Expensive when new - and I saw one once on eBay - mucho bucks.   
   > >>   
   > >>You can't copy the disk - they're made on special 'wobbling' hardware!   
   > >>   
   > >>I imagine you could write a program that gave basic information on   
   > >>similar lines - don't recall ever seeing such a thing.   
   > >   
   > >At one point there was even a 'bootable' disk that had the cats-eye   
   pattern   
   > >on it.  You could even do it with 'tricks' and have the cats-eye be   
   readable   
   > >data and the program will then let you align from the screen instead of   
   with   
   > >an oscilloscope.  Tandy sold the disk through their National Parts at one   
   > >time.   
   > >   
   > >And you're right, they have to have the 'alignment track' put on with a   
   > >'wobble'.  And the wobble has to be 'set' against the index pulse.   
   (Well,   
   > >on the scope version)   
   > >   
   > >But you can do an alignment without the cats-eye, if you're careful.  If   
   > >you have a KNOWN good diskette, you can just 'center' the track.  Set   
   > >up a program to read all the sequential sectors on a track and throw the   
   > >data away.  Take the drive out of alignment slowly in one direction until   
   > >it fails.  Then return and go out of alignment the other direction.  Do   
   this   
   > >a number of time and then set the alignment to the midpoint between the   
   > >two failures.  You'll be fairly close.  Not as good as a cats-eye, but   
   > >usually close enough.   
   > >   
   > >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)