Looking for a MSDOS software to clean floppy drive heads \ VOGONS

Looking for a MSDOS software to clean floppy drive heads

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First post, by Xanxi

Posted on 2024-09-28, 20:03

Xanxi Offline

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Location: France

Hi.

On the Amiga, we have several softwares like HeadCleaner https://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/headcleaner372 which can clean the floppy drive heads in conjunction with a cleaner disk. It makes sures the heads are moved back and forth on the cleaner surface. It comes handy to clean the heads without taking apart the computer and the drive.

I am looking for something similar for MSDOS but can't find any so far.

Any clue.

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1 of 5, by Grzyb

Posted on 2024-09-28, 20:34

Grzyb Offline

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I use DiskDupe...

The attachment diskdupe.png is no longer available

Zaglądali do kufrów, zaglądali do waliz, nie zajrzeli do dupy - tam miałem klimatyzm.

Reply 2 of 5, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2024-09-28, 20:37

wbahnassi Offline

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ImageDisk by Dave Dunfield also has a nice disk cleaner routine, regardless of my opinion of this method of cleaning 😁

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, TSeng ET3000, SB 2.0, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
Intel Pentium 90, Matrox Millenium 2, SB16, 4x CD
HP Z400, Xeon 3.46GHz, YMF-744, Voodoo3, RTX2080Ti

Reply 3 of 5, by Xanxi

Posted on 2024-09-28, 21:14

Xanxi Offline

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Location: France

Great, thanks!
I'm going to give a try at these two.

@wbahnassi: what is you opinion about this method?

Reply 4 of 5, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2024-09-28, 21:28

wbahnassi Offline

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Oh, it's a dangerous method. There is high risk that the cleaning media gets caught on the heads, pulling them out by the force of the spindle motor, effectively either ripping them out or breaking their springs' tension.
The probability of this disaster happening grows with how much cleaning solution (e.g. alcohol) is sprayed on the cleaning media. The more wet it is, the higher the chance. And if you don't wet it enough, you don't really clean the head..

This happened to me a couple of times, after which I decided to keep this as a last resort if I'm really really lazy to dismantle the drive and clean the head by an ear bud.

Sorry if that sounds scary.. that's why I didn't want to just mention it right in my reply.

Reply 5 of 5, by Cyberdyne

Posted on 2024-09-29, 00:34

Cyberdyne Offline

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Location: Estonia, Tallinn

Nothing is better than a good 80% vodka. Those sanitiser are no good, because they include oils for yourb hands to be soft and usuallu some gel agent. If you have industrial spirt, you are golden. Just nice little dab with a q-tip. Never done bad with that approach.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.
PS. If I upload RAR, it is a 16-bit DOS RAR Version 2.50.

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