[vcf-midatlantic] USB Floppies that are flexible? Cleaning a 3.5" drive?

[John Heritage]

Hmm  for the Greaseweazle - wouldn't you want a regular internal floppy
with a 3.5" connector?

This does seem like an interesting device for allowing use of a 'real'
floppy drive to read unusual formats..  that might meet my need as I have a
few 3.5" drives (internal) laying around..  was just hoping to use on a
modern computer without a floppy port

On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 10:13 AM Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> Forgot to mention that a Greaseweazle is also highly recommended for this
> scenario. It is exactly why I purchased this the Dell floppy drive. This
> combination should let you write most 3.5” diskette images.
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 10:08 AM Dean Notarnicola <
> dean.notarnicola at vcfed.org>
> wrote:
>
> > I recently purchased a Dell FDDM-101 for that very purpose. It is a
> laptop
> > drive, but it has a mini-USB port on it that allows external use. It
> > reportedly is one of the few USB floppies that can do so, but I have not
> > yet tried it.
> >
> > As far as cleaning, I think that cleaning diskettes are your best bet.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 10:00 AM John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic <
> > vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Hey folks,  two asks -- I'm looking for advice:
> >>
> >> Are there any USB or external floppy drive arrangements that are
> flexible
> >> like internal floppy drives for allowing formatting and/or reading of
> >> unusual sector sizes or formats?
> >>
> >> Ex:  800KB Atari ST floppies and PC DOS disks formatted in unusual sizes
> >>
> >> ..
> >>
> >> Second question is -what is the easiest way to clean the heads on a 3.5"
> >> floppy?   If I have a bunch of 'suspect' floppies that I want to clean
> the
> >> head between every disk it seems a little painful to disassemble the
> drive
> >> enough to see the heads and clean.  Are there any alternatives?
> >>
> >> (I'm used to 5.25" drives where there's often enough space in there to
> >> wipe
> >> without disassembly).
> >> Maybe there's a good (modern) source of 3.5" cleaning floppies?
> >>
> >> (P.S.  I have a K6-3+ PC I can put a fresh OS on so I may be cleaning a
> >> legacy 3.5" drive instead of a USB floppy).
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >> John
> >>
> >
>