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From: ken@slhisc.uucp (Ken Stamm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Dead floppies
Message-ID: <1990Dec24.142159.23900@slhisc.uucp>
Date: 24 Dec 90 14:21:59 GMT
References: <10547@ilog.UUCP> <95173@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Organization: Shearson Lehman Brother, Inc.
Lines: 23

Concerning the Dying Floppy thread, here's something I've found that may be
of interest:

Sometimes, I've taken an 800K floppy diskette, not fresh, but used,
that mounts fine on the desktop, and wanted to re-initialize it.
I choose "Erase Disk", do it, and then the system sometimes comes back
with "Initialization Failed!"

Before throwing that floppy away, I've found that de-gaussing the floppy
completely under a powerful bulk eraser (use the ones sold for videotapes,
not audio cassettes, they put out a much stronger field)  (also, slowly
part the floppy from the eraser before switching erase off)
usually permits me to then initialize the disk successfully.

Obviously, I'm not advocating using old floppies until the oxide wears off,
but thought this phenomenon merited mention.

Comments?

-- 
Ken Stamm (ken@slhisc.uucp, sun.com!gotham!slhisc!ken) (212)341-3868
Shearson Lehman Brothers, 390 Greenwich St. 4W, New York NY 10013
Views expressed here are opaque to the above corporation.