Cleaning disk packs

[Kevin Handy]

Richard wrote:

> So as a user of modern hard drives this just sounds inredible to me.
>
>I take it that older disk packs, while still fragile, are less
>susceptible to minor surface abrasians caused by the cleaning pads
>swiping the dirt off?
>  
>
These older disk packs were NOT sealed units, and the bit density
is a lot lower than you see on modern disk drives. If you put
"magna-view" on those platters, you could probably read off the
data just using your eyeballs, or maybe a cheap magnifing glass,
when it isn't being used to fry ants.

The surface abrasions that a cleaning pad would make were
unlikely to cause any problems; while the hair, dirt, dust, bugs,
spider webs, flaking oxides, etc., that were frequently found
in drive packs, were a frequent cause of problems.