[comp.sys.mac] squeaky 800K drives

jeffp@phred.UUCP (02/08/87)

Having spent a bit of time solving a squeaky drive problem I inquired about 
here a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd mention the solution (I hope) to the
problem.

My internal Mac+ drive suddenly started making some terrible squeaks when the
head was being moved over many tracks.  Turned out to be worse when going
from outer to inner tracks.  It also turned out to be highly correlated with
some 3M DD/DS disks that I have (even though they behaved fine with
the external drive & other Macs).

Apple has a swap-out policy on bad drives that leaves the local repair shops
knowing nothing about how to repair the apple drives.  But one experienced
fellow said that a good head cleaning often took care of such problems.  He
also said the best cleaning job is done with a Q-tip and alcohol.  So, I
got myself a TORX (#15) screwdriver, took the mac apart, Q-tipped the
upper and lower heads, and voila! no more screeching noises! 

{seismo!nike!uw-beaver, ihnp4!allegra!fluke} !tikal!phred!jeffp {Jeff Parke}
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