Cleaning 5 1/4 Drive heads.

edited August 2017 in Hardware
I have determined that the heads on the 5 1/4 inch drive on the Pack-Mate III probably need cleaning, as it still reads but sometimes needs multiple tries.

I went looking on youtube for tutorial videos on how to do this, and I cannot find one. All I find is a video of a guy cleaning his drive then testing it, but not actually teaching how to do it. The rest are for 3.5 inch drives..

Anyways, would anyone know a good place to learn this?

P.S: Yes, I have checked ebay, and the only 5.25 inch head cleaning floppy is $62 American... right now... so not buying that.

Comments

  • If you have a cleaning disk, it is quite simple, just put some isopropyl alcohol on the disk, put the disk in the drive, and do something to engage the drive.

    Without a cleaning disk, it is a matter of disassembling the unit an cleaning the heads with q-tips. The important thing is not to pull the top head to far up, otherwise it may bend and fail to go back down all the way.

    Cleaning disks come up on eBay periodically for reasonable amounts, but you must be patient. Sometimes they can be found mixed in with larger lots of floppy disks.
  • I found this, considering I also need a place to store my 5 1/4 Floppies, this'll be killing two birds with one stone.

    http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Fellows-Computer ... 1#viTabs_0
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