Are Disketter cleaning kits useful? (particularly for an old working Disk ][)

Hardware Repair Help

Debating whether to invest in one of these (they aren't that expensive). My late 1970s Disk ][ drive is functioning well at the moment without cleaning.

If it ain't broke...

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GEOS's picture

I haven't used one in years,

I haven't used one in years, but it seemed to work fine. A can of compressed air got out the big stuff just fine, but the cleaner never hurt anything.

unknown1's picture

I Found a diskette Cleaner...

I Found a diskette Cleaner on clearance for a buck or something and bought it because they are hard to find these days. If your floppy drive goes unused for weeks or months at a time (like mine do) a cleaner sure comes in useful.

Cleaning diskette ordered. Be

Cleaning diskette ordered. Sounds like cheap insurance.

Cleaning disks become most us

Cleaning disks become most useful when you copying a bunch of old floppy disks that are dirty or have loose surface oxide. If all of your disks are new, and the disk head is clean, you won't need the cleaning disk very often.

I have manually "spit shined"

I have manually "spit shined" the disk head and performance has improved. It's able to read a new old stock Pacman game that would not boot up earlier.

Used a cleaning diskette and

Used a cleaning diskette and now my Zork which was not booting up, boots fine!
This is just after one applicable and AFTER i thought I had spit shined it after dismantling.

I am sold on diskette cleaning kits for Disk ][ drives. No snake oil here.