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From: mcarrick@gara.une.oz.au ( ANSC)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Dead floppies
Summary: Possibility of dirty or magnetized heads
Message-ID: <5065@gara.une.oz.au>
Date: 21 Dec 90 21:06:25 GMT
References: <10547@ilog.UUCP>
Organization: University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Lines: 23


Like many others I have had many problems with dying floppies, especially
1.4M types. However there were a few more clues:
This problem didnt arise until my IIcx was about 9 months old, and it
happened gradually (frequency slowly went up).
It is now frequently the case that new floppies can't be initialized.
It seems to be worse with 1.4M than 800 K floppies.
Using a head cleaning disk usually helps for a while.

My suggestion about the cause comes from audio tape head problems.
As tape heads are used they can become magnetized with the result
that one loses high frequency response. You can't pack as much
info per mm as before. This is completely curable by de-magnetizing
the heads with carefully applied ac sine magnetic source.

Can we demagnetize floppie reading heads?
There are cassettes designed to do this to cassette decks, but it
might be more difficult to pack it all into a slim little floppie.
Can someone from Apple or Sony please contribute to this discussion.

Greetings for Christmas from Armidale

Mick Carrick