On Aug 11, 10:34=A0pm, "Michael J. Mahon"  wrote:
> schmidtd wrote:
> > On Aug 5, 4:00 am, "Michael J. Mahon"
 wrote:
> >> I would not start to diagnose with this mindset.
>
> >> "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
> > Indeed. =A0I was skeptical of this thread, until the exact thing
> > happened to me tonight. =A0Drive 1 started failing after the first few
> > disks in a stack; I started to wonder what was going on, and put in a
> > disk that worked just minutes earlier. =A0I/O error. =A0Ripped apart th=
e
> > drive, got tons of gook with a Q-tip and 91% isopropyl alcohol. =A0The
> > drive still isn't reading, so I see what others were saying about
> > drives seeming toasted. =A0We'll see - I guess I'll go back and scrub
> > some more. =A0Some disks did strike me as slightly abrasive going in an=
d
> > out of their sleeves. =A0Maybe I have that "abraded
head" problem after
> > all! :-( =A0I got out drive #2 and experienced the same thing. =A0I can
> > only do this so many times before I run out of drives!
>
> Yes, it can happen...
>
> That's why I use my "sacrificial" drive for unknown-status
> floppies. =A0If it gets bad, I just leave its case off for easier
> access. =A0;-)
>
> -michael
Ok, disaster averted.  Another cleaning, this time dabbing the
pressure pad with isopropyl alcohol and letting the whole thing dry,
and it's back among the living.  *Whew.*  The problem disks were
narrowed down to a batch of Memorex 2S2D disks with white labels.
Upon closer inspection, they do have a blotchy appearance...
especially after spinning the disk inside the sleeve a little bit to
see disk surface that wasn't showing through the window all these
years.
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