Re: Don't clean drives!! (was Re: Problems Detected with System 6)

[paw@ausom.oz.au (Peter Watson)]

grover@emunix.emich.edu (Grover Thomas) exclaims:

>In article <1993Jan25.150843.18453@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> mark@pokey.jsc.nasa.gov
>(Mark Manning) writes:
>>
>>Since I clean the drives every month I didn't think the disk drives were
>>dirty but I cleaned them anyway.  No visible dirt - maybe microscopic? ;)
>
>Ack!  Don't "clean" your 3.5" drives.  They rarely ever need it, if
>ever.  Even cleaning them once a year is probably too much.

Once upon a time (1/t?) I would have agreed with you - certainly for 800K
drives. I'm not sure I've ever cleaned mine since Jan 1987!

However - for 1.4Mb drives Apple specifically recommends cleaning them!
Specifications for cleaning the drives are distributed as part of the dealer
service data for the drive (nothing special - just a 'normal' 3.5" head
cleaning kit). Drives are supposed to be cleaned whenever a customer reports
a problem with them, _before_ any further diagnostics are performed. Probably
something to do with a more "sensitive" head.

Once a month is hardly likely to be overkill in any case!
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