This issue I thought I would catch all of you up on a few tips I have picked up on the subject of wafers for the Rotronics Wafadrive. Many of them you may have noticed for yourselves, but for those new Wafadrivers they may come in handy.
The first thing is that I recommend that you format every new wafer you use several times before you trust it to hold a precious program of yours. The reason why is that they have a thin tape inside the wafer that, like all magnetic tape, is subject to a small bit of stretch after a bit of use. By formatting the tape a few times you take care of some, and perhaps all of the stretch before you put a program on tape. This will take a small amount of time to do but is better than geting a “faulty wafer” report when your favorite program will no longer load for you. You should still backup all of your programs on another wafer. I use many of my 128K Wafers solely for keeping backups of my programs.
Most all of you have noticed that when you format a 16K wafer that it will usually format out at actually 19 to 20K to a wafer. The same is true for 64K wafers that format out at around 70 to 73K to a wafer and the 128K wafers at 130 to 135K. nothing is wrong with your Wafadrive. The K (which stands for 1024 bytes) given on each wafer is the minimum number of K to a wafe, not the exact number that you get.
The wafers that we use in our Wafadrives are the same ones used in the newer (the majority) of the A&J Microdrives. So if you have bith, feel free to borrow from the other. However they will not be able to run each other’s programs anymore than a disc for a Commodore will run on an IBM. You can feel safe in buying wafers if you need them for either machine. Another place or two you might look for wafers if you need them is a Service Merchandice Store, Labelles, etc…. or a local Sith-Corona dealer. The SCM company has a word processing machine that uses the same wafers to store text. These wafers usually format out at 72 to 74K.
My last word on the subject of tape stretch: I have found that evry once in a while on both my A&J and my Rotronics Wafadrive that if I have a wafer that after quite a bit of use starts to show up with faulty sectors or has to run through part of the program more than once to get loaded, this too is due to stretch. What I do is copy the program over onto another wafer, then go ahead and re-format the once faulty wafer. All but once this “cured” the wafer that was giving me trouble.
Many of us who use the Wafadrive have wished for a suitable program for us to use that matches the power and utility of Pro/File 2068. I HAVE RECENTLY HEARD OF TWO PLACES OFFERING SUCH AN ANIMAL.
The first place is DEERING Imaginering, 136 Neverbreak Dr., Hendersonville, TN 37075. Mr. Deering will sell you a copy of PRO/FILE if you will: 1) supply a copy of your original PRO/FILE on tape or proof of purchase of the program, and 2)send $9.95 +.50 postage. I am sure that if you just want it on tape to use in Spectrum mode without the Wafadrive he will be able to help you in that area also.
Also according to the Sept/Oct isue of SINCUS NEWS, “NEWS FROM TIMELINEZ, P O BOX 1312, PACIFICA CA 94044 has some data via the TAS BAM USER’S GROUP, P O BOX 644, Safety Harbor FL 33572 – the people at TAS BAM have with Tom Wood‘s blessing modified PRO/FILE to operate on the Rotronics Wafadrive system. If interestedsend a request for data with a SASE.”
Check one or both of these out and you could find you have an excellent database program ready to run on yor Wafadrive. By the way, Damco Enterprises is now offering Campbell‘s Master File on Wafer for those looking for a good database other than PRO/FILE 2068.
If you have anything you would like ot sdhare with our fellow users – tips, questions, short routines – for the Wafadrive, or a program you would like to have reviewed, send these along with a SASE to me at: Frank Devis, [address omitted]