Re: Dying drive or floppy?

[bloomer_au <bloomer@iprimus.com.au>]

On Aug 15, 2:05 pm, WK2 <www_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> My disk IIs are acting strange - I made this disk with ADT, and worked
> fine a few days ago.  When I just tried, the disk ran (booting) a few
> seconds, then certainly dropped into the monitor prompt (*), and DOS
> is not completely loaded; I exited out from monitor with CTRL-B, and
> typed in "CATALOG", got 'syntax error.'   This is actually the 2nd
> time in 1-2 weeks.

Hi. It sounds typical of dirty drive heads behaviour. I was discussing
on this list recently the phenomenon whereby 5.25 disks would be
working fine, then I'd put in one, and it wouldn't boot, after which
none would run. The usual implication being the 'bad' disk had left a
bit of crud on the heads. This is happening more often as all the
disks age. It happened to me the other day, and after I ran a cleaning
disk with isopropyl alcohol in my drive, the other disks ran fine
again.

Sometimes I have experienced degrees of the drive getting cleaner,
which coincide with what you have described. For instance, a halfway
state can be that it graduates from 'check startup device', but then
it fails to load properly and drops into the monitor. Sometimes if I
clean the drive again, I then get back to working.

So you're right that it can be one or both. A dirty disk is the usual
cause of the dirty drive. The main thing to note is which disk you put
in and probably not use it again unless you clean it manually. I've
read some folks on this list open the whole disk up, clean it all by
hand, then copy it from the split open disk to a new 5.25 floppy. I
haven't tried this. I find sometimes you can just dab off any obvious
surface growth/artifacts you see through the underside of the the disk
window. Rotate the disk around, dab stuff off you see, continue to
rotate, etc. Keep going til it all looks clear. Make sure everything's
completely dry before you try it again in a cleaned drive. I don't
love doing this kind of thing, but when a disk has reached this state,
you kind of have nothing to lose anyway.
- Wade