Fooling with floppy drives

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
Date: Thu Apr 8 03:21:32 1999

Coincident with all this chatter on floppy drives I have run into a streak
of uncooperative drives. I happen to be using macs with 3.5" Sony
mechanisms, but my question is somewhat general. What do you do with floppy
drives that need repairs?

Normally I just put them aside, but after this week I have close to a dozen
in the defective box and ZERO (actually a negative number since I need even
more) reliable units that aren't already installed in other systems.

I have already performed the first aid procedures like cleaning the heads
(using a wet cleaning floppy), and disassembly down to the bare mechanism
and blowing out the bunnies with canned air. This pile is the hard core
rejects, floppy doesn't spin, floppy doesn't eject, which I guess means a
drive motor or support electronics is shot.

For perspective, Apple still wants like $150 for a new floppy, mail order
sources have the same for about $70, and reliable refurbs run the gamut
from a low of about $20 up to $50 or more (used OK drives are $10 to $20.
and my last pesky supplier was asking $5 for untested pulls). What I am
finding disturbing is that more and more of the drives I see have OBVIOUSLY
been swapped from another machine, or show other signs of being opened up
by non techs (missing screws or other parts).

What are your opinions, practices, or sources?

Do any of you fix your floppies?

Thanks.
Received on Thu Apr 08 1999 - 03:21:32 BST