Re: How can I determine if my floppy drive is dead?

In article <vintageapplemac-1412240638060001@192.168.1.134>,
 vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) wrote:

In my rebuilt PM 9600, I have been unable to successfully mount a floppy
disk since I put it all back together. Any disk I put in, within a second
or so the "Disk Is Unreadable" or whatever error appears and asks if I
want to initialise the disk, and many of these floppies mounted absolutely
fine only a few months ago when my Performa was still operational.
 
So, I'm leaning towards the drive being the issue. I do have 4 or 5 spare
drives so I intend to try them all out, but I've had two drives so far
behave in the same way. Is there any software test I can run to prove if
the drive is operational? Could they need a clean? Would dismantling them
and cleaning help???

I've had this happening with floppy disk drives too. Exactly the same problem. I
can, however, give you some hope - In both my cases, the reason was simply dirt
inside the drive. Both drives do work again now.

I'd take out the drive and open it up, then cleaned it with some pure alcohol
and a cotton swab. I lubricated the moving parts and suddenly the thing started
to read and mount disks again. It was sure great to see an original 1988 Mac SE
floppy drive coming back to life!

These floppy drives are much more reliable that they are usually credited for.
Often it's just the dirt of decades leading to problems such as yours (another 
common one being brittle plastic gears breaking, but even these can be replaced)

It's not hard to do. If you have no experience, watch some YouTube videos on the
matter before you start. They will give you an idea on what to look for and what
to avoid at all costs (e.g. bending the drive head too much)

Good luck!