400k Sony external drive problems.

[nextse7en]

Hi folks.

I'm having some issues getting a 400k drive to read/write/erase.

Initailly the drive mechanisim was so gunked up that I couldn't insert a disk into the drive. I removed the eject mechanisim and am soaking it in WD/40.

While the drive was apart, I connected it to a Mac and mounted the disk without the inject mechanisim. (I removed the metal protective cover from the floppy before I did this.)

The drive spins up, and the mac recognizes something has been inserted, but reads it as unreadable. Attempting to format gets an "Initialization Failed!" after about 5 seconds. The disk drive spins at this point, but the head doesn't move from the outside of the disk. The head IS capable of moving, as it moves to the center of the disk just before the eject servo actuates after the formatting fails.

I've cleaned the drive head with alchohol, any other ideas?

Thanks!

-Patrick

 

[nvdeynde]

It's not a good idea to try these drives without the inject mechanism as they are very sensitive. The floppy disc has to be aligned 100% correctly, otherwise the drive won't work.

Soaking the assembly in WD40 alone is not enough: it's good to loosen it up again and remove all the old grease but then you have to apply new grease to the moving parts.

Does the drive still have it's pressure pad ? If not, you won't get it working.