Re: Rotting 5.25 floppies

[schmidtd <schmidtd@my-deja.com>]

On Aug 11, 10:34 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> schmidtd wrote:
> > On Aug 5, 4:00 am, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
> >> I would not start to diagnose with this mindset.
>
> >> "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
> > Indeed.  I was skeptical of this thread, until the exact thing
> > happened to me tonight.  Drive 1 started failing after the first few
> > disks in a stack; I started to wonder what was going on, and put in a
> > disk that worked just minutes earlier.  I/O error.  Ripped apart the
> > drive, got tons of gook with a Q-tip and 91% isopropyl alcohol.  The
> > drive still isn't reading, so I see what others were saying about
> > drives seeming toasted.  We'll see - I guess I'll go back and scrub
> > some more.  Some disks did strike me as slightly abrasive going in and
> > out of their sleeves.  Maybe I have that "abraded head" problem after
> > all! :-(  I got out drive #2 and experienced the same thing.  I can
> > only do this so many times before I run out of drives!
>
> Yes, it can happen...
>
> That's why I use my "sacrificial" drive for unknown-status
> floppies.  If it gets bad, I just leave its case off for easier
> access.  ;-)
>
> -michael
Ok, disaster averted.  Another cleaning, this time dabbing the
pressure pad with isopropyl alcohol and letting the whole thing dry,
and it's back among the living.  *Whew.*  The problem disks were
narrowed down to a batch of Memorex 2S2D disks with white labels.
Upon closer inspection, they do have a blotchy appearance...
especially after spinning the disk inside the sleeve a little bit to
see disk surface that wasn't showing through the window all these
years.