phco@ecsvax.UUCP (10/31/84)
Reference: <3399@ecsvax.UUCP>
Thanks to all who responded to my recent inquiry about the practicality of
cleaning RL02 disk packs. Suggestions included the following:
-- Get someone to clean the disks. Prices mentioned varied from $10-15 to
$50 per cartridge. Cleaning should have no effect on the data.
-- Buy a disk cleaner and use it on all disks every 6 months or whenever
the number of soft errors seemed excessive. Prices from $500 to $2000
were mentioned for cleaning equipment.
-- When a disk accumulates more hard bad blocks than will fit in two
tracks, trash it or get it resurfaced (about half the cost of a disk).
-- Have DEC service check the alignment of the drives whenever packs seem
flakey. Head realignment frequently will help.
-- Check your purchase date and see if you can have the disks replaced on
warranty.
Several persons also mentioned that they had discarded removable pack drives
in favor of fixed winchester disks.
Since we have only a few disks, we'll probably just get DEC to clean them.
--- John Miller (ecsvax!phco)
Dept. of Pharmacology
Univ. of N.C. at Chapel Hill