Commodore 1541-II - Safety Rules for Diskette Care; Inserting a Diskette

SAFETY RULES FOR DISKETTE CARE
1. Keep the disk drive and its diskettes away from all moisture, dust, smoke, food, and
magnets (including the electromagnets in telephones and TV's). Also keep them away
from temperatures either too hot or too cold for you to work in for extended periods.
2. When not in the drive, diskettes should be stored upright inside their paper jackets. Do
not allow them to become bent or folded. Since the working part of the diskette is on
the bottom, never set it down on a table top, or other place where dust or moisture
might affect it, and be especially careful to keep your fingers away from the openings
in the diskette cover.
3. Although some people sell kits intended to "double your diskette's capacity" by
cutting an extra write-protect notch into a diskette, it is best not to use the other side of
the diskette on the 1541 drive, even if your diskette is labeled "double-sided." Doing
so will cause added wear to your diskettes and drive, and may cost you an important
program some day.
4. When buying diskettes, you may use any good quality 5lA inch diskette.
5. Make sure the diskette center hole is more or less centered in its opening before
inserting the diskette into the drive. Although the hub assembly will correctly center
most any diskette, it would be very difficult to rescue data from a diskette recorded
with its hub off-center. One way to help center diskettes is to "tickle" the drive door
shut instead of slamming it down. By gently closing it part-way, and then opening a bit
and then closing the rest of the way, you give the spindle more chances to center the
diskette properly. Another way to ease diskette centering is to buy diskettes that come
with reinforced hubs. These hard plastic rings around the hub opening make the
diskette hub more rigid, and easier to center properly.
INSERTING A DISKETTE
To insert a diskette in a 1541 (Fig. 1), first open the drive door by rotating the door
lever counter-clockwise one quarter turn until it stops, with the lever level with the slot in
the front of the drive.
Grasp the diskette by the side opposite the large oval access slot, and hold it with the
label up and the write-protect notch to the left. Now insert the diskette by pushing it
straight into the slot, the access slot going in first and the label last. Be sure the diskette
goes in until it stops naturally, with no part showing outside the drive, but you shouldn't
have to force or bend it to get it there.
With the diskette in position, seat it properly for use by twisting the door lever
clockwise one-quarter turn, vertically over the slot until it stops. If it does not move
easily, stop! You may have put the diskette in the wrong way, or incompletely. If that
happens, reposition the diskette until the door lever closes easily.
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