On Apr 17, 22:32, Bill Yakowenko wrote: If they're single-sided, it doesn't matter much. If double-sided, then open with no disk is fine, so long as the mechanism can't be jolted into letting the upper head hit the lower one. This is pretty well true of most 3.5" drives, and they're usually shipped like that. On some 5.25" drives, though, the door or lever could be moved, so inserting a floppy and closing the door may be better. I'd suggest putting it in back-to-front (or use a sheet of thick card with a hole in the middle) to improve the cushioning effect. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York