Repairing and Restoring a Vintage Macintosh Floppy Drive

If you're having problems with your vintage Mac floppy drive such as:
- Failing to eject a disk
- Sticky or seized loading
- Failing to read or write data, or
- Failing to format disks
This tutorial can help you clean, service and repair your auto-inject Macintosh floppy drive to try and eliminate these issues.
Replacement gear for eject mechanism:
ebay.to/2PUWAiQ
3D model of replacement gear for eject mechanism (I haven't tested this, so I can't comment on its quality):
www.thingiverse.com/thing:407...
If you enjoy the content and would like to make a small donation, you can do so here:
www.paypal.me/branchus
Tools/Products used (paid links):
Digital Multimeter: kaiweets.com/products/kaiweet...
T15 Torx (for opening compact Macs): amzn.to/2ZJKWN3
Microscope: amzn.to/2HnSI5H
Microscope camera: amzn.to/2TdSYsZ
Budget alternative microscope: amzn.to/2PmRagt
Soldering station: amzn.to/31QvCMW
Soldering iron tip (T12): amzn.to/2L3Juwt
Budget alternative soldering station (uses T12 tips): amzn.to/2SeUpHg
Hot air rework: amzn.to/2ZjYzPH
Budget alternative hot air rework: amzn.to/3fN1ZU7
Helping hands (third hand): amzn.to/31JUhVL
Ultrasonic cleaner: amzn.to/2ZJKFtB
Ultrasonic cleaning fluid: amzn.to/2YusoQQ
Fume extractor: amzn.to/2HuG0oU
Solder: amzn.to/2ZCUurA
Flux: amzn.to/2Z7XoHQ
Solder wick: amzn.to/2L1Xgjg
UV Solder mask: amzn.to/2ZnK1yu
Precision tweezers: amzn.to/2NqkhPz
Swann Morton curved scalpel blades: amzn.to/2oN7qNn
No. 3 Scalpel Handle: amzn.to/2ngcx85
Kapton heat resistant tape: amzn.to/2xBnTso
28 AWG enamelled magnet wire (thick): amzn.to/32cRsLf
34 AWG enamelled magnet wire (med): amzn.to/35Bx20D
40 AWG enamelled magnet wire (thin): amzn.to/2J2Aisf

[@santospoland]

This is most definitely THE best video on how to take apart, clean and restore Macintosh 800 and 1.44 FDD's I've ever seen. Excellent job!

[@rudykevin2959]

i guess im asking the wrong place but does anybody know a tool to get back into an instagram account?? I was stupid forgot my login password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me

[@robertopome]

Thank you, Bruce !!!!, this video is fantastic. It has been very helpful to me repairing the Sony 800k floppy drive in my Mac PLUS. Thanks a lot !!!

[@PuffyRainbowCloud]

What an incredibly detailed and helpful video! My Mac Classic has been having some floppy disk drive issues so thought I'd give it a restoration and see if that fixes the issues. Usually is the case, a lube and clean of my C64 FDD was all it needed, too. A tip for reaching tight spots with a regular cotton stick: you can flatten the tips with a pair of tongs to make it slimmer (and wider). It's helped me clean some tight spots in the past.

[@75slaine]

I just came across this excellent video after blindly muddling through most the process last night, lol. The 1.44 floppy drive in the Mac I got recently was either stored without a disk for too long and the heads in the open position or the seller tried to "refurbish" it themselves and bent the upper heads too far. But my upper head was miles away from the bottom head and all springy. I tried a similar adjustment but unfortunately when verifying a formatted disk it just spits it out saying the disk is bad. Even though it's a new old stock disk. I may go back in and have another attempt after watching this video and see if I can finesse it anymore. Thanks Branchus

[@mattlang8603]

Nice lighting. Good sound. Love the close ups. Very helpful. Thanks!

[@KrishnaDraws]

very clear explanations and nice camera angles. I love seeing the close-ups. Thank you!

[@artholt546]

I never would have attempted this repair without your excellent video! I DO have a broken gear...

[@TheHouseOfMoth]

Two years after this video was released, I finally had a use for it! Floppy drive is fully functional once again :)

[@theirongiant2182]

This is amazing. I have three classic Macs with superdrive floppies that all need cleaning. One of them JUST broke the gear in the eject mechanism and I already ordered replacement parts. THANK YOU for going through everything in such detail and explaining the reason why you perform each step, and why certain mechanisms work the way they do. The pro-tip was setting that pin on the eject mechanism toward the front / dead-center of the drive. Although the drive I'm working on is broken, I can see that the eject motor makes a full revolution around that metal circular frame to eject the disk. Only half the rotation is needed to lift the disk out, but it comes home for the next trip. Nice work, sir. Thanks from all the way across the Pacific Ocean.

[@goncalodumas]

Again. A great resource for us compact Macintosh enthusiasts. Thanks!

[@Electrotat]

Thank you, I wasn't sure on how to repair the eject mechanism.

[@nevilovermann797]

This was an amazingly well done video. Thank you @Branchus! I wish I has seen this before I tried servicing my Quadra 700 floppy drive. I ended up with the bent head-mount that you bend back into shape at the end of the video. I'll have to give that a try. :)

[@AlanGrassia]

Thank you, Bruce, for making this video. It has been very helpful to me for cleaning and repairing the Sony 800k floppy drive in my Mac SE. Thanks!

[@estnx]

This is the best repair video for retro apple disk drive I have found so far. Thank You :)

[@elamorte]

Very very well done video. Everything crystal clear. Very useful. Thank you!

[@frankiii9165]

My SE/30 has the floppy drive that was failing everywhere, first the autoeject, then the read heads… finally replaced it and the replacement drive goes mega well.

[@kylemiller4560]

Great video! I was able to fix a floppy drive in a Mac Plus by adjusting the read head and lubricating all the slides and motors after watching your video.

[@GarthBeagle]

Another great guide, thanks Bruce!

[@yetshi]

thanks for the very thorough walkthrough, you got my mac classic ii back up and running.

[@nslingerland]

Thank you so much for this excellent video. By following it I was able to repair a Mac SE floppy drive. Thank you!

[@stew.c]

Perfectly explained, I’m now looking forward to tackling mine!

[@sram993]

Thank you. I’m a new subscriber and you’ve given me the confidence to attempt this myself. I was given an SE/30 that is full of dust and pet hair and it’s going to take a while to get it back to full health.

[@wings400]

Just found your channel. It is awesome! Subbed!

[@wizardofboz76]

This helped me out a lot, appreciate it.

[@ConsolesRetro]

Thanks Bruce 👍

[@michaelcarey]

Thanks for this very informative video! Great to see another great KZbin channel from a fellow Australian! I rescued a Macintosh Plus from a local e-waste drop off point a few years ago (missing keyboard nad mouse) and I'm getting it back into operation condition. It seems to work fine, but the floppy drive was filthy! Sadly, in my haste I did bend the spring for the top head past it's point of no return. I hope I can get it back into line again.

[@matthewmealing1187]

Any luck with that?

[@ScottTyack]

Broken gear for me…and filthy! Thanks for the video.

[@VectraQS]

Following this to resurrect the floppy drives in the two SEs and the Classic I just picked up. I have noticed that the heads do not snap back together after they sit for 25 years in the up position. The Torx screw heads also shear off when trying to disassemble the heads. I had success by putting a screwdriver on the metal and pushing down -- now they close properly. This might have actually been the biggest issue with my drives not reading disks.

[@colleton60]

Great video, thank you.

[@natedawww]

Wonderful as always! Wish this video had been around when I first started restoring old Macs a couple years ago, starting with my Plus' FDD. Unfortunately, it never worked right even after cleaning, regreasing, and replacing the gear, and not too long ago the drive seized up and I damaged the head removing a diskette from the drive. What are your suggestions for replacing a damaged head mechanism, or does it just have to be sourced from another drive?

[@BranchusCreations]

Other than replacing the head assembly from another drive, I can't really offer any suggestions with that one. Just be aware that sometimes when you swap drive assemblies, they have subtle differences in their position, which will require repositioning of the interruptor switch to reset the correct home location of the heads. This is a slow, repetitive and tedious process of moving the interruptor slightly, restarting the computer and testing the drive over and over again. I have managed to bring two drives back to life with this method though.

[@appleguy1986]

Do you happen to know where I might buy a refurbished HD drive for my Color Classic? Outstanding tutorial, you truly know what you are doing. Thanks in advance

[@travisraab]

This video looks great! I purchased software restore floppy for mac SE, and I was told that I should absolutely clean the floppy drive before trying to put a floppy in. Is that absolutely true? I'm worried about opening this old thing up and doing more damage than good. Thanks!

[@carnright]

Great video! Do you find the capacitors are ok?

[@tony359]

interesting. I read not to remove the motor as it sets the position of the heads. But I do not see any play in the frame. And it works in the end :)

[@BranchusCreations]

The position of the heads is set by the interruptor, so just make sure you don't disturb that.

[@tony359]

@@BranchusCreations fantastic. I won't.

[@retro_online6927]

Best tutorial ever thanks alot it was very useful thank you and can i have 3d model for the gear to print and thanks lot

[@BranchusCreations]

I haven't tested this, but apparently this is a 3D model of the replacement cog: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4077514

[@longlake5913]

Wonderful video, as always. Can you post a link to the small grease tube you are using? I assume it is not a dielectric grease, as it is not coming in contact with electrical components.

[@kat_7203]

I'm wondering about this too! I'm about to do a refit of my SE/30 including a clean of the floppy so this info would be appreciated.

[@bbbloogg]

Fantastic video, I was following step by step but with the 1.44 mb FD, I did notice though that the worm gear bracket is attached to whole base plate in the 1.44mb version. I was able to clean it sufficiently buy moving the head unit, but was wondering if there is a way to remove it.

[@gnokketto7423]

GREAT SCOTT!! Best Video EVER, I have a problem with my floppy I have lift UP the upper head and now don't return down when put the disk.. any suggestion ?

[@bricago2302]

I’m repairing a floppy drive from a Yamaha DX7II synthesizer. The bottom head is loose, though still attached. (one corner can be lifted and it slides around a little). Any advice on how or whether to repair this?

[@alexodis]

Hi Bruce. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. You've helped me before, with a broken sound amp IC. At around 40:15 into the video, you completely remove the heads servo. I have a drive like yours, where I misaligned the heads while trying to grease the endless screw. Now it won't format nor read or write any floppy. Do you think it's possible to find a starting head position, where the drive might at least format and read its own floppies? I mean, without an oscilloscope or a floppy drive alignment kit. B.R. A.Salvador

[@BranchusCreations]

Hi @alexodis, have a look a this great little guide by Paolo Bertolo on Tinker Different. He shows how you can use the shaft of the worm gear to accurately change the location of the interrupter until you find the zero track location: tinkerdifferent.com/resources/zero-track-alignment.37/

[@jusher2459]

Do you have updated information on obtaining the replacement gear for eject mechanism? The current link (​@t​​) does not return an active eBay listing. Thank you.

[@rockyW46]

Hello thanks for the excellent video guide, I wanted to know what kind of grease did you use to lubricate all the components of the floppy drive?( plastic and metal) Is silicone grease or something else? Thanks

[@alexshepherd]

Thank you for tackling the age-old problems of eject motor and head behaviour :) I’ve got a curious Macintosh Classic problem where the high-density auto-inject drive endlessly seeks track 0 with a rather unpleasant machine-gun sound - it doesn’t seem to be the drive though, because all three drives I have do the same thing. Yet sometimes, any of the drives can work. Have all the optointerrupters failed with age? Or is it the logic board - do I try to swap the SWIM chip? Is it worth trying an external drive - do you think that would have the same fault if it’s caused by the logic board? Thanks for any ideas if you’ve solved this one before :)

[@adambrazda5286]

Hello. Thank you for this video. My 800k floppy drive in Macintosh Plus is constantly trying to eject disk. I have a yellow-stripe cable. Any idea what to do? Try another yellow-stripe cable? Thank you, Adam.

[@zebular]

No joy on fixing my drive, anyone have a link to a compatible 1.44 drive for my Mac se/30?

[@ms-ex8em]

can modern pc 34 pin floppy drives read old apple mac 400 k and 800 k discs ?? thanks

[@willjacobs1432]

What is your 3d printer setup?

[@cocozio1]

Hi, how can buy a working floppy drive for Machintosh Classic ?

[@8bitwidgets]

Hi there, this is awesome and thanks for making this video. Do you have any videos or suggestions for 90's era Mitsubishi floppies? My system is a Quadra 650. The biggest trend i've seen in the last two drives i've used is you put a disk in and no matter what, the floppy wants to format it.. and when you format it, it says the disk is defective.. even when it had just read that same floppy not 20min before it started acting up.. these were both working drives when they arrived and after maybe a few days of reliable usage.. this would begin to happen. NOTE: ejection is fine and inserting.. this is entirely about the reading/writing going on with both of them. both also are reasonably clean. no signs of dirt / dust. i have dusted them out.

[@BranchusCreations]

There are a couple of things. Firstly, those drives do have a few leaky surface mount electrolytic capacitors on them, so the drive might need recapping. The other thing that sometimes happens is the little microswitches that detect if the drive is inserted, or if it's an 800K or 1.44MB disk can sometimes fail. You might be inserting a high density disk, and it thinks it's an 800K disk! Also, have you tried giving the heads a good clean with some isopropyl alcohol?

[@squishmusic]

I have a desperate need of a fix (call me stupid). I managed to repair a drive-belt on a (Matsushita EME-213YV ), but in doing so I managed to break the disk load/eject mechanism and I cant figure out how. Then I was playing with the heads and the load/eject was working again, then later it wasnt :D I cant figure out what I may have knocked, moved, broke :D Helpppppp :D

[@dreyfus66]

My drive started screaming, any idea what I can do?

[@gkmaia38]

Have you ever come across alignment floppy and software for this drive?

[@BranchusCreations]

Not for this drive, no. An old version of TechTool had some sort of floppy drive testing utility, but I haven't tried it yet. There was an application called SonyTest for the old 400K floppy drives, but I haven't found an equivalent for the 800K or 1.44MB Superdrive.

[@stanleyperth]

Hi mate .. I got an old M001, with a diskette drive error upon bootup .. i.e. a question mark over the diskette icon. Also, from the slot, I see a piece of metal blocking the slot .. any clues whats going on?

[@nuke19491]

I’m guessing you didn’t get the drive cage lined up right. On my SE the cage has a couple of metal tabs that need to go into slots on the chassis to insure the drive is lined up properly

[@TheCj71984]

mine still has same error failure to initialize

[@BranchusCreations]

There can be other problems, such as alignment issues or damaged heads. Not all drives are repairable unfortunately.

[@sjwright2]

32:21 I just push with my (clean) squidgy finger and they pop on.

[@RedTroPc]

toturial

[@amonster8mymother]

I've got two compact macs that look exactly like that. 😁😁😁

[@amonster8mymother]

Ok I've got two macs and the HD have the problem not the floppies.