[vcf-midatlantic] Needed 5-1/4? Cleaning Floppy

[jsalzman at gmail.com]

Removing the magnetic media is one of the best ways of cleaning the disk
surface, but I'd be wary of using a circular pattern. When you clean in
circles, you potentially drag abrasive dirt in circles along with the
recorded data track, potentially wiping out the entire track by scratching
it away.

I'd suggest cleaning in short strokes from the hub, outward, like they
recommend for CDs. That way if you drag a piece of dirt along the surface,
you would drag it across the tracks instead of along them. A small scratch
perpendicular to the track would have a far less degrading effect on the
recorded data.

On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 9:04 PM David K via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> I recently bought a 5 1/4 version of Witness from infocom.  I bought it for
> the contents as the listing said the disk was bad.  Visually looking at the
> disk it looked dirty.
>
> I used a sharp hobby knife to open the disk "envelope" at the top edge (the
> edge you hold when you put the disk in the drive).  This allowed me to
> totally remove the magnetic disc itself - being careful not to touch the
> magnetic parts.
>
> I used 90% rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball.  I cleaned the bottom side of
> this disk because that was the side actually read by the head.  I used
> moderate pressure and cleaned the disc in a circular pattern from outside
> to inside.  I could see some dirt on the cotton ball.  I let it dry
> completely and then put it back in the "envelope" and tried it in the
> drive.  Initially it did not work but after repeating the same process two
> more times the disk has been working.
>
> I have used this same process with other "dirty" disks and been
> successful maybe 30% of the time.
>
> David K
>