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Another Disasterous meeting with Mr Wabash

Yep, had the same kind of thing with my System 80 about 6-7 months ago.

A few of those disks were Wabash too, come to think of it. I think the main problem was they had been left in a very hot environment (a loft under a tin roof) for years. They were very "sticky".

Tez
 
Marcus,
I have had nothing but bad luck with Wabash disks. They are notorious for exactly what you describe. Normally though I am able to recover the drives but it requires disassembly and manual cleaning of the head and rails. When the Wabash disks go bad, they tend to disintegrate and spread iron oxide all over the insides of the drive.

Condolences and best of luck in drive recovery.

Andrew Lynch
 
How ironic that the website you link to says the floppy disks are "tested to uncompromising quality", "superior durability" and "exceed industry standards".

By the way, what does "lifetime warranty" refer to? The floppy disk's or the user's lifetime? Perhaps you can sue them for damage on the floppy drives.
 
Hi
If it is the adhesive that has bled through the liner, you
might try cleaning with a little "GooGone". It is better
at cutting this goo than alcohol.
Be careful not to get the solvent near any glued parts.
and be careful to follow with a cleaning using alcohol.
I suspect that it would damage disk but I've not tried it.
For the disk, if you really need the info from them,
I've had good luck, removing the disk from the envelope,
placing it on a flat surface and cleaning with rubbing
alcohol and a swab. Use another cheap envelope without
liner to read later. If the drive is vertical, cut the top
of this envelope. If horizantal, cut the edge nearest
the latch. This will help to not accidentallly damage the
disk if it slips out.
Be vary careful handling the disk when it is out of the envelope.
It is easily bent or folded. That can't be fixed to easily.
Dwight
 
Reminds me of my biggest mistake: accepting a shoebox full of Hewlett-Packard single-sided, single-density 3.5" disks as a gift, and attempting to format them as DS/DD 720 kB in DOS. I must've ruined at least three floppy drives doing that. These were very early 3.5" floppies, the kind where if you slide the shutter all the way open by hand, it locks open, and then you pinch the edge of the disk to snap it shut. This was for the first-generation 3.5" Sony floppy drives which did not have an automatic shutter open/close mechanism.
 
I just had another worrying encounter with old 5.25 inch floppies.

I booted up my IMB 5150 for a photo shoot for a project I'd been working through. I thought it would look nice showing Wordstar 3.3, so I dragged out an OLD WS disk (25 years old) and started to boot the disk. Yikes, the drive groaned, creaked and failed to load anything. Inspecting the disk there were two grooves (one each side) nicely carved in the media.

Oh Bugger!

Anyway, I dragged out my cleaning disk, and spun it for 20 seconds or so to clean the gunk I assumed was now clogging up the heads.

Then I tried to re-boot with a new disk. Nothing. Nothing AT ALL. Didn't even recognise the disk, just defaulted to cassette BASIC. Arrgg!! Had the gouging and crunching thrown the heads out of alignment??

Concern rapidy rising. No tools or skill available for a drive re-alignment.

Ok, let's not panic yet. Lets try the cleaning disk again. Another 20 seconds.

Ahh...hope!?

It now at least TRIES to read the disk but says bad sectors. One more go with the cleaning disk this time for about 40 seconds.

Now boots perfectly!

Whew!!

This is not the first time this has happed with old disks. I'm imaged them all. I should really toss them in case I get tempted again! It's not worth the hassel.

Tez
 
Hi,
I have had similar problems with old Tandon style drives. The only reliable method I've found to fix the problem is to remove the drive, pull up the controller PCB and clean the heads directly with isopropyl alcohol using a cotton swap. While you are in there use another cotton swab to lubricate the drive head rails using sewing machine oil.

Once the disk delaminates and spreads the oxide all over the insides of the drive it will lead to other failures and even more "screech of death" disk failures.

Remove any excess oil and let the heads dry out thoroughly for several minutes before using again.

Good luck with your project!

Andrew Lynch
 
I use the same technique, but I use a light machine oil with Teflon in it from Radio Shack. (It comes in a small dropper/tube that should last for ages.)

It is important to clean the rails thoroughly before lubricating them. After cleaning the rails and heads I've not had problems, and some of these drives were cleaned over 7 years ago.
 
I just stick the small end of a double sided emery board into some liquid draino, shove it in between the heads and sand them suckers smooth.

Never have a problem with THAT drive again.






Ok, I'm just kidding. Don't try this.

On second thought, go ahead and try it. If you're THAT dumb, we deserve to get a laugh out of you :)
 
Seems to be a pattern with him. Like he's bucking to be a moderator or something ... ;-0
 
lynchaj said:
Somebody's been taking their evil pills again...
:)
Andrew Lynch
Click to expand...
---
He IS evil, isn't he...

I mean, imagine suggesting an emery board (!!!) to clean the heads, when we all know that friction between head and disk is the real problem that destroys disks; The answer is a liberal application of heavy lithium grease (easily extracted from old LiIon batteries) on the head(s).

The caveat at the end of his message is valid though, and applies to this post as well.

m
 
MikeS said:
I mean, imagine suggesting an emery board (!!!) to clean the heads, when we all know that friction between head and disk is the real problem that destroys disks; The answer is a liberal application of heavy lithium grease (easily extracted from old LiIon batteries) on the head(s).

The caveat at the end of his message is valid though, and applies to this post as well.
Click to expand...
This reminds me of when I was reading the blog (before there was such a thing as a "blog") of a college-age kid who was restoring a 1967 Mercedes. The spark plugs were fouled due to the engine burning oil, and rather than replace the plugs, his solution was to grind the soot off the spark plugs with a bench grinder and then put them back in the engine. :eek:
 
I just tried the drive rail lubrication procedure for the first time on a drive that had issues, and I have to say it succeeded very well (now that I finally found out how to access those drive rails.. )
Not only seems it reading normally again, it is also much quieter.
Removed as much dust as I could, then applied some oil that came with a hair clipper (if thats the right word).

I'm back on getting my ZIP 250 to work with my 5150 (it works on my 5160, but still not on the 5150....) but thats an whole other story.
 
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