Cleaning method of floppy drive head of embroidery machine

Update:19-03-2021
Summary: After a floppy disk drive has been used for a period of time, the head will be stained with dirt, mostly due to dust in...
After a floppy disk drive has been used for a period of time, the head will be stained with dirt, mostly due to dust in the air and worn-out magnets on the floppy disk sticking to the head; or the floppy disk used is of poor quality, damp, moldy, etc. the reason. When reading and writing information on the floppy disk, the dirty head will not only scratch the disk, but also cause read and write errors. Therefore, the head must be cleaned regularly. The following introduces several methods for cleaning the head of a floppy disk drive:
Clean the head with the cleaning disk

1. Drop 2-5 drops of cleaning liquid on both sides of the reading and writing holes of the cleaning disk. The amount of cleaning liquid should be moderate. Too little amount will not clean the surface of the head. If the amount is too much, it will be left on the surface when cleaning the head. The cleaning fluid will affect the life of the magnetic head. Sometimes it will cause short circuit of electronic circuit and burn out components.
2. Insert the cleaning disk dripped with cleaning fluid into the disk drive according to the direction of the arrow on the label, and close the door of the floppy disk drive. For the 5.25 inch cleaning disk, when the drive door is closed, the cleaning disk will rotate and you can hear the cleaning disk and The contact friction sound of the magnetic head. When the drive door is closed, the 3.5-inch cleaning disk will not rotate. Read and write operations must be performed on the 3.5-inch cleaning disk in order to make the cleaning disk rotate. You can enter commands such as DIR to make the cleaning disk rotate (Note; at the DOS command prompt), and repeat the operation several times after an error message appears. This method is only suitable for newly purchased cleaning disks. The reason is that after typing in the DIR command, the system still controls the floppy drive's head like reading and writing disks. Go to the root directory to search. The root directory of the floppy disk is on side 0 of the disk. If you use the DIR command every time you clean the head, position the head at a fixed position. Then the position of the 0 track will inevitably be seriously polluted, which will not achieve the cleaning effect on the magnetic head, and also reduce the use efficiency of the cleaning disk. The head cleaning program provided by HD-COPY and DISKDUPE can be used. These cleaning procedures can make the cleaning of the magnetic head by the cleaning disk safer, faster, and cleaner through the rotation of the cleaning disk and the radial back and forth movement of the magnetic head. The cleaning time should not be too long, generally 10-35 seconds.
3. Take out the cleaning disk and write down the number of uses of the cleaning disk on the label of the cleaning disk. Do not use the cleaning disk more than 15 times. If the cleaning disk is soiled by head dirt (as can be seen from the color change of the cleaning disk gasket), a new cleaning disk should be replaced.
4. After cleaning, do not insert the floppy disk for operation immediately. It should be 10-15 minutes after the cleaning liquid on the head is completely volatilized before inserting the floppy disk for operation. Otherwise, the magnetic head will be adversely affected, the cleaning fluid will get on the floppy disk, and the data on the floppy disk will also be destroyed.
In addition, it is not advisable to clean the floppy drive head frequently with a cleaning disk, usually once every six months. Frequent cleaning of the magnetic head will reduce the reliability of reading and writing of the floppy drive magnetic head, reduce its service life, and even damage it.
Directly clean the head with cleaning fluid

Wrap a silk cloth (not cotton) with wicker sticks and soak it in cleaning fluid (do not use alcohol, which will corrode the epoxy resin that encapsulates the magnetic head), and gently wipe the magnetic head. There are two upper and lower magnetic heads, the lower one is easy to see and easy to wipe. The upper head is not easy to see, so when wiping the upper head, be extra careful not to damage or damage the head. This method is mainly used to clean the stubborn dirt on the magnetic head that is not easy to clean.