English Amiga Board - View Single Post - - ! How to clean a dirty/mouldy disk ! -

giobbi · 19 May 2021, 23:38

My way (I did it for 5.25" but should work for 3.5" too):

I've took a bad drive and removed heads and everything uneeded.

If you connect to GND the Pin #10 or #16 (depending if your drive is set as #0 or #1) of the data connector will make the motor to go on permanently.

To power the floppy drive I use an old ATX psu I repurposed as backup power supply for my tests (however if you have an ATX psu you can switch it on simply connecting the green wire to a black wire on the motherboard connector).

I put a button normally open to switch the motor on.

Then I put the floppy into the drive, press the button and, while the disc is spinning, I clean it with soft paper towel and alcohol. It's quite fast and straight, even if you have many disks to clean.

The problem with the 3.5" of course is that you haven't access on the back side, unless you find a way to open an access from behind.

I have to say, however, that this way you can't clean inside the floppy (impossible without to break the solders on a 5.25" floppy) and in any case it's quite hard to impossible to recover a severe damaged disk. When I see mold or deep scratches on the disk I do not even try to clean it anymore.

19 May 2021, 23:38	#16
giobbi Registered User Join Date: May 2021 Location: Sao Paulo / Brazil Posts: 8	My way (I did it for 5.25" but should work for 3.5" too): I've took a bad drive and removed heads and everything uneeded. If you connect to GND the Pin #10 or #16 (depending if your drive is set as #0 or #1) of the data connector will make the motor to go on permanently. To power the floppy drive I use an old ATX psu I repurposed as backup power supply for my tests (however if you have an ATX psu you can switch it on simply connecting the green wire to a black wire on the motherboard connector). I put a button normally open to switch the motor on. Then I put the floppy into the drive, press the button and, while the disc is spinning, I clean it with soft paper towel and alcohol. It's quite fast and straight, even if you have many disks to clean. The problem with the 3.5" of course is that you haven't access on the back side, unless you find a way to open an access from behind. I have to say, however, that this way you can't clean inside the floppy (impossible without to break the solders on a 5.25" floppy) and in any case it's quite hard to impossible to recover a severe damaged disk. When I see mold or deep scratches on the disk I do not even try to clean it anymore.