Steve, Adrian, I am pretty certain that alcohol will break down the binders and remove the oxide. Since the bad disc was run through the drive the head/heads should be cleaned before any more read or write attempts are made otherwise more discs will be damaged. Thanks, rich! On 7/10/2018 8:25 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:

I've had the goo from the adhesive of 5.25 inch 360k disk come through the nice liner and make gobs on the disk. I tried several thing but found that isopropanol worked without removing any of the magnetic material ( maybe s tiny amount that was likely loose already ). I'm not saying it would be the same for 8 inch disk. Once working I did copy them to floppies without liners. Dwight ________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2018 7:15:13 PM To: Richard Pope via cctalk Subject: Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying No, no, no! Do not use isopropanol to clean floppies--you'll wind up with a soft oxide coating and a brown rag. Were these mine, I'd first remove them from their jackets and then bake them and then clean them with distilled water and perhaps a couple of drops of a wetting agent (Kodak Photo-flo is a good) choice--a couple of drops goes a long way). You should be good to go--at least my experience tells me that. --Chuck

On 7/11/18 2:21 AM, Christian Corti via cctalk wrote: MSDS https://store.comet.bg/download-file.php?id=16956 first ingredient listed; isopropyl alcohol

On Wed, 11 Jul 2018, Al Kossow wrote: Of course, somehow you need some "magic" in the stuff ;-) But as you might have seen, the weight in weight is 10% maximum. And when sprayed on the surface (only a small spot) it generates a nice solid foam. It hasn't dissolved the binder/oxide for now, not even on Wabash floppies (that in my experience aren't too horrible, some noname stuff is much worse). If I'm afraid that it might dissolve the media I can always test it first on the inner side next to the hub hole. And I don't rub the media with high pressure, only gently. It is important to extract the floppy from its sleeve for cleaning, though. Christian

On Wed, 11 Jul 2018, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: What concentration of IPA were you using? There might be a difference in results between 70% and 91% There might also even be a difference in the oxide formulation between brands. (If Chuck was trying to clean a Wabash, then it might dissolve right through the plastic.) I've used water, and a heavily diluted dish soap. And Kodak "Photo-Flow" I kept a few spare jackets on hand. I had cotton film editing gloves around, but didn't always bother to use them. I was going to modify some 5x7 and 8x10 film hangers to use a film washer, but never got around to needing it. I often received 5.25" and 8" diskettes that didn't turn freely in the jacket. Most of the time, rubbing each of the four edges HARD against the corner of the table would loosen them up. If not, I just slit the jacket, and put them into a spare jacket. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

Just my experience, I once did a trial where I took two identical 5,25 inch disks of the same batch from the same manufacturer. These were clean disks which both formatted and verified just fine, but I wanted to see if IPA did indeed damage the disk. One I swabbed one with 75% IPA, the other with warm water with a touch of dishwashing liquid. On checking the IPA swabbed disk now showed a few damaged sectors. The water/detergent one did not. It's not scientific (just one rep) and I was quite aggressive with the wiping. However, it made me steer away from IPA. Immersing the platters in warm water with a touch of detergent, and gently wiping (then air drying) works well for me when cleaning "dirty disks". Terry (Tez) On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 8:17 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk < cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

On 07/10/2018 09:14 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: Well, they're your disks. I've seen a system for reading magnetic tape where a continuous bath was used to combad sticky-shed, but there were no comments on the condition of the medium after reading. If these were my disks, I wipe them down with cyclomethicone. That would at least lubricate them and leave them (after evaporation) in pretty much the same state as you started. Remember that a fatty acid usually was used as a medium lubricant when these disks were manufactured. The last thing in the world you want to do is dissolve this and remove it. But, as I remarked, they're your disks. I've certainly seen my share of 8" CPT floppies--and 1960s 1/2" tape. --Chuck

On 07/11/2018 02:53 AM, Adrian Graham via cctalk wrote: 58C +/- 0.5C --Chuck

On 7/11/18 8:57 AM, Rob Jarratt via cctalk wrote: Use a food dehydrator this is the unit I use for QIC tapes (weston 10 tray stainless steel dehydrator model 74-1001-2) https://www.ebay.com/itm//113143490361 but I do them a couple dozen at at time

I forgot one Butter. Also needs detergent cleaning afterwards. Dwight ________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2018 10:29:41 AM To: Al Kossow; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying I don't recall the concentration I used. I would recommend not using it for most conditions. I recall that I'd tried various other cleaning methods. I recall using water, water/detergent and may have even tried windex(?). None of the other things would touch it. The stuff on the surfaces was the adhesive use to hold the fiber envelope liners in place. I removed the disk from their envelopes and placed the disk on a clean flat plastic surface. I use swabs to rub the areas effected ( it looked similar to what we call screen fungus ). I went through a lot of swabs and I believe I rinsed them afterwards. There are a few other cleaning methods that one might try. I've never tried these myself The first might make you cringe a little. That is to use saliva. It is actually a type of digesting fluid. Of course, rinse it off when you get the offending stuff loose. Next is the smooth orange oil hand cleaner. ( not the stuff with pumas ). Really cleans things great and good for killing ants. Again, rinse maybe it might need a little detergent and then rinse. WIndex, maybe. GooGone, also a maybe ( I expect it to damage the disk but who knows ) In general I'd go with Chuck's advice. He has done more work with disk and tapes than anyone here else except possibly Al. Dwight ________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2018 9:10:14 AM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying On 7/11/18 8:57 AM, Rob Jarratt via cctalk wrote: Use a food dehydrator this is the unit I use for QIC tapes (weston 10 tray stainless steel dehydrator model 74-1001-2) https://www.ebay.com/itm//113143490361 [https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/113143490361-0-1/s-l1000.jpg]<https://www… Weston Commercial Stainless Steel 10 Tray Food Dehydrator 1000W 638029776257 | eBay<https://www.ebay.com/itm//113143490361> www.ebay.com<http://www.ebay.com> It is 1000 watts. It is in good used condition with no dings and in good working condition. Great for jerky, vegetables or fruit. | eBay! but I do them a couple dozen at at time

I'm the victim of the spell checker. Thanks for the fix. Dwight ________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2018 11:05:43 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: 8 inch floppies, decaying On Wed, 11 Jul 2018, dwight via cctalk wrote: Don't use pumice to clean off the pumas. (they won't like it) Stick with well whale oil.

Would Chuck's temperature and Al's oven be appropriate for old magtapes, too? On 7/11/18 9:10 AM, Al Kossow via cctech wrote: