Thinking about it a bit more, I wonder if the standard "litany" for retrying read errors on floppies was due to the disc-and-follower of the SA400, more so than the leadscrew of the Micropolis. I doubt that there's much of a difference with the taut-band mechs.
Anyway, the litany runs like this: Re-read 3 times in place. Step in one cylinder unless at high-limit (if so, skip this step), then step out one cylinder and re-read 3 times. Step out one cylinder (unless at track 0, if so, skip this step) and then step in, re-read 3 times. Do a recalibrate to track 0 seek to the subject track and re-read 3 times. The "step-in/step-out" rigamarole was supposed to compensate for any "slop" in the positioning mechanism. I can't recall where I first read about this, but it was undoubtedly from a drive manufacturer's app note. --Chuck
