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

[Dean Notarnicola]

You can try the Dell dive I indicated without the Greaseweazle.  YMMV


On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 10:19 AM John Heritage <john.heritage at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>> >>
>> >
>>
>