Found a fix for old floppy drives that stopped reading disks

Last week I wiped down the read heads with a q-tip and 91% isopropyl alcohol on a beat up drive from 1987 and it started working perfectly. Saved me from hunting down a replacement on eBay.

2 comments

2 Comments

derek9394d ago

My buddy Mike had an old Amiga drive that wouldn't read anything, like it just made clicking noises. He was ready to throw it out until I told him about the alcohol trick. He used a q-tip and 70% isopropyl cause that's all he had, and after letting it dry for an hour the drive read his old disks like clockwork. He even got it to load a copy of Defender of the Crown that he thought was toast. The whole time he kept saying he couldn't believe a fifteen dollar solution saved a three hundred dollar relic.

kim.wren4d ago

I read that using 70% actually works better than 90% for this cause the water helps dissolve the gunk without drying too fast. Crazy how something so simple can bring old tech back to life.