Re: Apple //e keeps Killing Floppy Drives!

["John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.com>]

In article <1sednbOyFIXit9XVnZ2dnUVZ_jKdnZ2d@comcast.com>,
 "Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

> Polymorph wrote:
> > On Jun 5, 11:25 am, Boot Zero <ap...@bidlink.net> wrote:
> > 
> >>Hey,
> >>
> >>I have an Apple //e enhanced, which has recently been brought back into
> >>service.  Upon initial use, both floppy drives worked, and I was able to
> >>copy some disks via ADT.  After a few hours of intermittent copying,
> >>drive 1 (of a Duo-disk) was throwing errors.  Disks that used to boot
> >>stopped booting.
> >>
> >>Drive 2 in the duo still worked.
> >>
> >>I purchased a stand-alone 5 1/4 floppy, that worked fine for a while,
> >>then had the same problem. First it reads, then it throws errors, then
> >>it won't boot.
> >>
> >>Bought another Duo-disk on E-bay.  Drive 2 was working, so I removed it
> >>and installed it into my old Duo-disk unit, giving me 2 working drives.
> >>  After some hours of intermittent use, drive 1 started throwing errors.
> >>  Moving to drive 2, it worked fine for a while, then the same result.
> >>
> >>Before all drives died, I did a speed test using Copy2plus.  On the
> >>drives that were working, they showed normal speeds (198-202ms).   On
> >>the failing drives, the speeds are all over the place.  STarting at
> >>around 225, then dropping to almost zero, then back up to 300 or so.
> >>
> >>Any idea what might be causing this?  Any clues as to what was needs to
> >>be replaced?
> >>
> >>Any suggestions welcome
> >>
> >>-BZ
> > 
> > 
> > Another possibility is that if the disks you are trying to boot from
> > are dusty/dirty, it may be that you are simply dirtying the heads in
> > all the drives that you place the disks in. You may need to clean the
> > disks (and now the heads of your drives) before you can get them
> > working again. At this point I'll hand over to MJM, because he is the
> > master at cleaning/reviving 5.25" disks. I have a scanned document on
> > my website that details the procedure for cleaning the heads on a
> > Disk ][ drive:
> > 
> > http://apple2.sytes.net/Floppy_Maintenance/index.html
> 
> I occasionally run across very dirty/moldy/flaky 5.25" disks, and
> I try to read them only on one sacrificial drive that is cleaned
> often and never used with "good" disks to avoid mold infection.
> 
> They are usually read only once or twice in order to make copies
> onto good diskettes.
> 
> If you do happen to have a bunch of "bad" diskettes, I recommend
> this approach so that you no longer have to contend with "bad"
> diskettes.  There are enough problems with computers without
> having to worry about your media.  ;-)
> 
> -michael

I lugged a DuoDisk to a trade show some years ago. Its first (left) 
drive ate disks by seeking and overwriting track zero. I assumed it was 
the drive, but it could have been carelessly connected.  Is there some 
component in the DuoDisk that could turn a drive into a killer? :-)

John
-- 
John B. Matthews
trashgod at gmail dot com
home dot woh dot rr dot com slash jbmatthews