Fooling with floppy drives

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
Date: Thu Apr 8 13:59:16 1999

>Since new floppy drives cost about $25 including shipment, it's difficult to
>justify repairing them. This is frustrating for people like you who have
>drives for which replacements are not readily available for $20 or so.
>
>Your experience with sloppy workmanship gives clear indication that $10 per
>hour is not enough to pay a competent technician. The occasional look
>inside should give you good indication of why one who can't spend more than
>15 minutes' time fixing a $20 drive, can't get the job done. These devices
>must be considered "throw-away" items by now. You've got to learn to
>fix-em-yourself.

A common situation for mac shops, or even more so for people using a mac in
a sea of PC, is that little or no "official" support is available. When a
floppy acts up, you call Bob in accounting and he stops by during his lunch
hour. Old machines, or obviously broken machines turn into parts donors.
This is mostly what I have noticed, drives that have been swapped around
from mac to mac (only two styles were used, but with maybe half a dozen
different carriers).

I just may get some of this Blue shower, and try on fixing a batch. I am
already starting to notice the first signs of "learning" more than I
desire. ;)
Received on Thu Apr 08 1999 - 13:59:16 BST