PC floppy cable twists...

[Chuck Guzis]

On 10/20/2005 at 7:42 PM Allison wrote:

>Media wear, I've had disks spinning for years in clean environments and 
>several dead drives that were still fine.

Dirt happens.  It gets between the head and the media and doesn't do any
favors to either.  I've got several diskettes in my collection that have
the oxide coating worn clear through on the directory track.  Better to
either stop the motor or lift the head.   Around here, during the driest
months of the year (August and Sepember), the clay soils turn to a very
fine powder and become airborne. Hoiuse dust during those months tends to
have a brownish color.

Add to this that most PC's have fans on the power supply that are set to
exhaust air from the box, which means that the drive slot is a convenient
entry point for contamination.  It used to be that fans were set blow the
other way and filters were used.

Cheers,
Chuck