So all my original Osborne disks seem to be shredding, but some cheapies I got from Ebay seem OK. One shredded so far, but the others seems pretty stable and I even went as far as to continuously format one for about 30 minutes and it survived just fine... It was an interesting exercise - and here's what I noted.
1. I found an interesting file I never saw on any sites before on the original disk - Called the Osborne Audit Program which seems to be a presale test - jsut tests things like screen alignment and that all the keys work, but not as much as the other test program. I think it was called ET.COM or something like that IIRC.
2. Not all drives format old disks well. It looked like a coercivity issue, so I stuck some neodymes near the disk while the drive was running, and it helped... I ordered a proper degaussing want to degauss the disks in the future. Should help with coercivity issues on old disks.
3. Aside from needing a microscope to check the heads, they need to be checked frequently, so if I want to check a lot of old disks, I need to think of a convenient way to extent a cable from the Osborne and switch between an internal and external drive, because there's not telling which disks will shred ( I'm still waiting on the methicone lubricant mentioned ) -
4. The bearings are a problem. One disk needs some serious cleaning, and the other I took the plastic clamp apart and cleaned already. But one disk is so bad it doesn't always start without a push. I hope it's not a brush issue in the motor.
5. Stepper related issues caused more formatting errors that anything else - A little WD40 on the worm drive - just a drop or so - fixed that problem right up- I wouldn't have thought it was a stepper related issue until I noted it was having trouble going back to track zero but away from Track 0 just fine.
6. There are some easy ways to make the cable for a Gotek from the pieces as an alternative to the adapter PCB. Just some ribbon cable, two 34 headers, and a 34 edge connector and a razor knife is enough. And maybe some solder to break out the 5v line for the Gotek.
7. Two GOTEKs look like they could be a good option.
Well, I haven't made an announcement yet because it's not finished, but I'm working on a Gotek adapter for the Osborne 1 and any other machine with full height FDDs. Here's a short video of how it works so far ( I tried to make the drive look and feel authentic... Just messing with mounting options to hide the gotek behind the flap. )
Yeah, that motion is way too satisfying... It will last for hundreds of cycles ( it's spring loaded with a simple elastic band ).