kev@voder.UUCP (Kevin Hoskins) (10/15/85)
Is there anyone out there in NET-land that can help me with two
intermittent disk drives. It seems that the are out of alignment. At
first it was thought that the heads were dirty, and a head cleaning disk
was in order. But a call to Apple customer service in Cupertino, CA
informed me that they recommend that one **NOT** use head cleaning kits.
Therefore, I am looking for any knowledge which will help me with this
problem. Is there software available that will act as a piece of test
equipment or is there a strickly hardware fix (follow these instructions,
apply power, probe this test point, turn this screw,....)?
I am in an electronics lab, so test equipment is not a problem.
Please Help! You can post the answer for others and reply to me by mail.
THANKS!
Sincerely,
Kevintomczak@harvard.ARPA (Bill Tomczak) (10/18/85)
>.... a call to Apple customer service in Cupertino, CA >informed me that they recommend that one **NOT** use head cleaning kits. Yow!!!!! I just bought one of these little 'money eaters' and 'cleaned' my disk drives only once with it. Did they say why you shouldn't do this or what the consequences would be? I just thought the disk drives would be like any other magnetic data transfer equipment (tape drives, etc.). Am I going to regret having done this even once?? Paranoically.... Bill tomczak@harvard.{ARPA, UUCP}
db@cbosgd.UUCP (J. Muir) (10/22/85)
In article <437@harvard.ARPA> tomczak@harvard.UUCP (Bill tomczak) writes: >>.... a call to Apple customer service in Cupertino, CA >>informed me that they recommend that one **NOT** use head cleaning kits. > >Yow!!!!! I just bought one of these little 'money eaters' and 'cleaned' >my disk drives only once with it. Did they say why you shouldn't do this >or what the consequences would be? I just thought the disk drives would >be like any other magnetic data transfer equipment (tape drives, etc.). > >Am I going to regret having done this even once?? > >Paranoically.... > >Bill tomczak@harvard.{ARPA, UUCP} The only reason I've heard for not cleaning disks is that cleaning can supposedly cause more damage to the heads than the dirt it's supposed to remove. The truth of this claim depends, in large part, on the abrasive- ness of the cleaning disk. Presumably some abrasion is necessary to remove crud, but too much will cause damage. There is also the concern about the cleaning disk and solution smearing dirt back onto the head. What to do? The sources I've heard suggest simply waiting until problems come up before cleaning the heads (i.e., don't fix it until it's really broke). I'm not sure I'd put it off that long, but I have cut back on head-cleaning (from once a month to whenever I feel like it). Dave Bursik/..cbosgd!db
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (10/30/85)
This anti-cleaning argument has also been going on in the IBM PC world
for years. In my observation, the sentiment comes from the existence of
kits that use various kinds of swabs to clean the heads; these result
in damage to the heads if misused. The ones with rotating pads appear
to be a different story: I've been using one of those regularly for as
long as I've owned my IBM PC (ever since they first came out), and have
experienced no damage whatsoever, even on my TM100-4 drive (which requires
much more precise alignment due to the smaller head).
It seems that the dealers are the ones who always recommend not using the
cleaning kits; the same dealers who offer "preventive maintenance" services.
It is unlikely that a company who manufactures floppy disks would market
head cleaning kits as well if they damaged the drives, since it would be
a risk to their reputation as a floppy disk manufacturer as well. I
generally buy those, and avoid the discount-house kits.
--
Shyy-Anzr: J. Eric Roskos
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