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From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: What to do with bad disks?
Message-ID: <76000300@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 18 Oct 88 18:13:00 GMT
References: <15569@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Lines: 19
Nf-ID: #R:agate.BERKELEY.EDU:15569:p.cs.uiuc.edu:76000300:000:753
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Oct 18 13:13:00 1988


I have "revitalized" several disks that cannot be initialized using
the following procedure:

-> Take two magnets (kitchen-type), place them on either side of the
disk, and spin the disk.  This is a healthy exercise for the magnetic
particles on the disk!

WARNING: THIS COMPLETELY ERASES THE DISK.  Also, some disks don't seem
to insert reliably into the drive, and must be reinserted to be read.
With a little practice, you can become skillful at this.

P.S.  I mark these disks with a special dot to see if they exhibit
flakeyness later.  If so, I throw away the disk.


Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,ihnp4,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies