[chbot] 5.25" floppy drive anyone?

[Helmut Walle]

Hmmm, a couple of comments and questions:

* The growth on optical lenses usually is fungal.
* Are you sure about wiping with alcohol? I haven't tried that, but the 
point is that the actual disc in these floppies consists of a plastic 
film substrate that is coated with a ferromagnetic layer - so is there a 
risk of wiping the layer off the substrate? That wouldn't be good...
* There is a further risk: the read-write heads in the drive have a 
fairly noticeably iron content, and in the typical healthy NZ salty 
seaside atmosphere they tend to rust pretty badly over the years. The 
rust on the head is pretty abrasive - so if you haven't used a drive for 
a long time, and particularly if it's been in storage in a well vented 
garage or shed, check the head surface for smoothness, and remove rust 
first if needed.

Kind regards,

Helmut.

On 10/04/18 07:51, Marshland Engineering wrote:
> Maybe different here in NZ but we used to get something like bacteria building
> up on old floppies, much the same as camera lenses get. Once you put them into
> the drive, the growth ended up damaging both the drive and disk. Check the
> disk is free from growth. If I had to read an old disk again, I would wipe it
> with alcohol first.
> 
> Cheers Wallace.
> 
> 
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