Single-Sided Cassettes

I have a Commodore 64 with a Datassette and have been experiencing LOAD errors when trying to load data from a cassette that has data stored on both sides. Can't data be saved to both sides of a cassette?

Clifford R. Mires

It sounds as if the record head on your Datassette could be out of alignment. This would cause it to read part of the "other side" (actually a second track running in the opposite direction) instead of the proper track. Sometimes this happens with audio cassette units, too—especially eight-track players—and can be heard as phantom music in the background.

One solution is to have your Datasette checked by a repair technician at your local computer dealer or audio equipment shop. However, be aware that once the head is properly aligned, it may not be able to read the tapes you made while it was misaligned, especially if the alignment error was great.

Another solution is to keep recording only on one side of each cassette.