help! my floppy disc disintegrated in my disc drive

[andrew markworthy]

More accurately, the metal sliding cover came off. I've managed to get the disc out and the cover, but the little spring which makes the cover go back into place hasn't been retrieved.
A very naive question - do I need to dismantle the machine to get at this tiny spring, or can it be left where it is? I put another floppy disc in to check if the drive worked, and the floppy disc seemed to read and store normally.

 

[Joseph S]

More accurately, the metal sliding cover came off. I've managed to get the disc out and the cover, but the little spring which makes the cover go back into place hasn't been retrieved.

Do you mean the faceplate "door" mechanism?
It really shouldn't be an issue outside of a cosmetic one. My entire plastic faceplate broke off with the door intact. It goes back on loosely and the door still works. The drive works fine with or without the faceplate. The only issue would be if the spring were to relocate to where it could hinder a part of the drive mechnism. If you want to get it you can, but floppy drives aren't all that expensive to replace if a disaster were to occur in the future.
I'd do a quick check to see if it somehow fell through to Motherboard level though.

 

[Iain Lambert]

If that spring is loose inside the drive then it might cause a problem, or you might be lucky. Who can say, really?

For what its worth, how often do you actually use your floppy drive these days? Unless anyone has any suspicion that more than just the floppy drive is likely to get damaged by that loose spring I wouldn't worry; if it does eventually die then a new one is only about £15 or so, and since the dawn of bootable CD-RW I've rarely used my drive.
[Edited last by Iain Lambert on October 25, 2001 at 07:42 AM]

 

[Gui A]

This happened at a computer store I was in with mu uncle way back when he had a 486. ... The tech guy had to get a magnetised screwdriver to find the sliding door and spring from the drive. he did it right away, though.

 

[JJR512]

First, consider that you can get a new floppy drive for $15-20 at a local computer parts store or $25-30 at a big chain like Best Buy or CompUSA, then ask yourself is it really worth it to take apart, fix, put back together, etc. the broken floppy drive?

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[andrew markworthy]

Many thanks for the advice, guys.