Re: Where to buy disk cleaning kit?

[ymca@daycare.com]

Thanks for the fuller explanation on this issue. The 3 drives have
probably never been cleaned. They were in the public school system
before they came to the ymca so it may be a wonder the drives spin at
all.

> 
>      As Nathan says, your drives don't care. My Cleaner Diskettes are
> from Radio Shack. The 5.25" diskette has panels your pop out to expose
> the cleaning surface-- for A2 drives, pop out the one on the bottom side
> and leave the top side panel in place. When cleaning, insert the
> diskette with the bottom side facing down.
> 
>      The reason for the snap-out panels is that, when there is one head,
> the side opposite the head is a pressure pad. Having the top panel in
> place keeps you from trying to clean the pressure pad (which would tend
> to wear out both the pad and the Cleaner Diskette).
> 
>      The 3.5" diskette has a small plastic panel you can snap out for
> cleaning two-head drives. Since the GS 3.5" drive has two heads, snap
> out the panel so that both the top and bottom heads get wiped.
> 
>      A few months ago, someone (I think it was Mitchell Spector) made a
> comment about possibly damaging 3.5" drives with Cleaner Diskettes. It
> is something to consider. As already noted, the heads in 3.5" drives are
> not nearly so ruggedly mounted as the one in, say, a Disk ][ drive
> (relatively speaking, the Disk ][ is 'built like a tank').
> 
>      Should a 3.5" Cleaner Diskette become worn, a bad spot or trailing
> paper fibers might snag a head and pull it off its mounting or bend it
> out of alignment. So, after 8-10 uses, it's a good idea to start
> checking the paper surface for wear (rotate it by hand to check the
> entire surface on both sides) before each use. Also, about 20 seconds of
> continuous spin should be enough to do cleaning. One or two minutes of
> continuous or nearly continuous spin could build up enough heat to
> soften the adhesive holding the heads to their mountings.
> 
>      As for the "PC only" notice on the Disk Drive Cleaner Kit package,
> at Radio Shack, it's probably intended to warn buyers that the kit is
> not intended for cleaning toasters.
> 
> 
> Rubywand