The PC Doctor's Fix-it-Yourself Guide- P23: A technical director for a UK-based computer company who teaches such courses as Caring for Your PC has developed prescriptions for treating sick PCs. Arguing the benefits of fixing it yourself rather than relying on experts, his mission is to empower users with trouble- shooting and safe repair skills. | CHAPTER 9 Hard Drives and Floppy Drives 209 Floppy Disk Care Floppy disks need greater care than CDs and DVDs. Here is a rundown of the dos and don ts of floppy disk care Keep your disks in a box to keep them free from dirt dust and animal hair. Be aware that any dirt on the disks will find its way into your drive. Keep disks away from magnets and magnetic fields. Keep disks in a cool place away from direct sunlight and heat. Store them in a cool dry place. Never open the metal flap of a disk and touch the media inside as this will damage it. Write on disk labels carefully. Don t press too hard as this will cause damage to the delicate media inside. Use a felt-tipped pen instead of pencils or ballpoint pens if at all possible and write on the label before it is attached to the disk. Make sure that any labels you attach to a disk are firmly stuck on. Never use a disk with a loose label or with a sticky note attached as they can come off and work their way into the drive damaging it. Never use a damaged disk in a drive as it may wreck the drive. Doctor s Notes Hard drives and floppy drives are the backbone of storage on most PCs hard drives especially so. Losing a hard drive usually means losing all the data that s stored on it. This is why it is vital to keep an up-to-date backup on a reliable medium. Learn to look or more accurately listen for the signs of damage or wear and pay close attention to any drive-related error messages. For added piece of mind get into the habit of running . tests on your drive. While it s true that most people have in part at least abandoned the use of floppy drives they nonetheless have their uses and could come in handy if you need emergency access to your system using a boot disk. Just because you don t use it often don t underestimate its importance. Your drives are important as is your data . Give them the respect and attention they deserve. 210 The PC Doctor s Fix-It-Yourself Guide Hard Drive Floppy Drive Troubleshooting
