Cleaning packs

[Guy Sotomayor]

On Nov 24, 2009, at 1:08 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:

> Dumb question (perhaps), but do the relative positions of the disk  
> platters in the pack matter on these systems? I suppose it might for  
> interleaving purposes for data already recorded.

I would suspect yes but never having cleaned multi-platter packs, I'd  
only do that on packs that I don't care about the data (ie I'm going  
to format the pack as soon as it's "clean").  If I care about the data  
that *might* be on them I probably wouldn't disassemble (ie de-stack)  
the pack.

TTFN - Guy

>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Paul Anderson <useddec at gmail.com>
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org 
> >
> Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 2:53:27 PM
> Subject: Re: Cleaning packs
>
> That's pretty much the method I use, mostly on RK05 packs. I think I  
> still
> have 2 alignment packs, which I should clean before using. I had a  
> homemade
> RK05  exercisor which also did alignments, but I loaned it to  
> someone on the
> list to use, reverse engineer, and make available to the list about  
> 2 years
> ago. Haven't heard from him since. I have 1 or 2 new linear  
> positioners, and
> maybe a few used ones here somewhere
>
> Paul
>
> On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:29 PM, Guy Sotomayor <ggs at shiresoft.com>  
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Nov 24, 2009, at 10:58 AM, Alexandre Souza - Listas wrote:
>>
>> One thing that I fear is that the knowledge to *properly* clean a  
>> pack
>>>> is going away. There is (was?) a place near Boston that would do  
>>>> it,
>>>> and I am sure Farris can as well, but I know of no others.
>>>> It would be nice to document how packs are cleaned, so we can do  
>>>> this
>>>> in the future.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I was going to ask the same, how do you clean a pack?
>>>
>>
>> Generally what I do is the following (note that I've only cleaned  
>> RK05 and
>> RL packs):
>> 1. blow out any dust/grime with compressed air
>> 2. do an initial cleaning of the outside of the pack with alcohol  
>> and lint
>> free cloths
>> 3. disassemble the pack
>> 4. clean platter with alcohol and lint free cloths.  This also  
>> provides the
>> opportunity to inspect the surfaces.  I toss any platter that shows  
>> any
>> abnormalities (cleaning up after a head crash is too time consuming  
>> to waste
>> on a marginal pack)
>> 5. clean the remainder of the pack with alcohol and lint free cloths.
>> 6. use lots of compressed air
>> 7. reassemble the pack
>>
>> It takes me 1/2 hour to 1 hour to clean a pack.  I do this in a  
>> bright well
>> lit and well ventilated space.  I haven't had a single head crash  
>> since I
>> started doing this.  I've probably done a few dozen packs this way.
>> However, I have ~300 pack backlog.  :-(
>>
>> TTFN - Guy
>>
>