Read the disk with a utility like FINDBAD that reads every singleĢ. Here's what I've started doing to test the disks and "refresh" the dataġ. Unreadable, and the heads get plugged with oxide dust. Some old discountīrand disks I've found can only be read a few times before they become Not only is this disk unreadable,īut any subsequent disk you put in that disk drive may be contaminated,Ĭheap disks can also have the oxide coating flake off. Attempting to read such a disk is likely to leave crud Likely to have collected dust, or worse yet, mildew from storage in aĭamp environment. If a disk has not been stored in a closed sealed package, then it is Single-density 40-track are the easiest double-density 80-track There is also a significant Ĭorrelation between amount of data on the disk and how easy it is to Lee Hart responded: I've been having the same problem. > Have any of you had problems like this? Is there a way to correct the > It appears that many of the disks are no longer readable or they are > I've had some 5.25" cp/m diskettes in storage for the past 17 years. Lee Hart wrote the following on Aug 22nd 2002, in posts on comp.os.cpm (quoted with permission): Work on a section at a time and rotate the "doughnut" in the envelope by hand. With care you can clean a diskette's media without removing it from the envelope, just DO NOT USE A HAIR DRYER - is thin plastic, it will MELT. Or a slight NOT HOT breeze of air will dry the surface. "Soap and water" is an alternative, water with a very small bit of soap is a very benign cleaner. For extensive mold damage, I have more notes below. This is sufficient for diskettes with relatively few spots of mold. (Use antiseptic cotton balls, cosmetic / cheap cotton balls may contain oils.) Wipe toward the hub from the outer edge. (Media is the Mylar disk in the sleeve.) Mold can be removed with a wad of clean clean clean cotton ball containing 91% isopropyl alcohol. My standard practice on 8" and 5.25" floppy diskettes, is to inspect visually for mold, through the drive head access hole I rotate the media in my hands inside the envelope / sleeve. you can see in this photo, a Q-tip with oxide from a floppy head. Crud on the floppy disk drive head requires cleaning with Q-tip in alcohol. A dirty or damaged read/write head, produces these scratches on media. When the head accumulates even a little iron oxide, it acts as a scraper, and picks up more material. Look at several disks of the same brand and kind to make a determination. however, some brands of diskette coatings have regular pattern in the iron oxide coating. In general, any irregular pattern or off-color material on media may be mold. Mold may also appear as small black dots. In photo #2 you can see the circular traces where the diskette surface is marked, roughed up, or abraded. When a moldy disk is read, the drive heads can smear the mold along tracks Or, in photo #3 it can look like filaments or an irregular web. In these photos, I've removed the disk media from the envelope. It's hard to see unless you use bright reflective light and possibly a magnifier. Here's some photos of diskette media with mold damage. With an inner layer of material that collects debris and also reduces drag on the rotating disk. The disk rotates in a sleeve or jacket of plastic, usually It can cause damage not just to the "bad" diskette with fragile coatings, but to subsequent diskettes read on that drive.įor physical reference: a 5.25 inch or 8-inch diskette consists of a doughnut or disk of plastic, with a magnetic coating, which is called "the media". A sharp ear can hear the difference in sound, when the drive head starts to drag or even scrape the diskette. Other media problems include mold, growing on the plastic surface. The iron oxide coating actually strips away, as its binders become brittle. Here's how to clean the dirt from the floppy drive heads,įor other issues and technical information about floppy drives and diskettes, review my Web document at this link.ĭiskette media damage from mold and head scrapingĪ common problem with floppy drives is a consequence of old diskette media becoming brittle and scraping away. Some other cleaning methods, and here's further notes about diskette quality by brand. Here's some notes about diskette surface problems and how to clean them, Crud on a floppy drive read head can scrap up the oxide and ruin not only the bad diskette, but subsequent disks. Old floppy diskettes often accumulate dust and mold (mould) over years and decades. For more info or for reuse or questions, email me via this Web link. Quoted material is copyright by the respective authors of that material and used with permission. Dirty diskettes and how to clean them and their drivesĬontents copyright Herb Johnson 2022.
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