The Sinclair QL Forum

Greetings everyone

I am sure this must have been asked before but I cannot find an answer having searched the subject ...

Does anyone offer a Microdrive re-felting service? I don’t have the confidence to carry this task out successfully and would be scared of messing up my drives with too much felt used or not securing the pad sufficiently.

I have two packs of 4 with the usual s/w suite on them plus about 8 or 9 extra carts.

Anyone fancy re-felting these for me? Happy to cover cost of materials and your time!

Thanks
Neil

I've re-felted about 200 in the last 4 months or so. More than half of those were carts that I got in lots and wanted to check out the contents of. The others were ones that I've sold, either as restored Psion software packs or as blanks. Apart from the carts that had had it in the first place and failed to format or hold data straight after re-felting, all have been fine and no one has complained yet.

Be aware though that even once re-felted the data on them is not always intact, especially for larger files like on the Psion carts. With my Psion carts I always re-felted, then formatted them 6x and then wrote the original software back on to them (from my vDrive after carefully noting what version of the Psion software was on them in the first place). Sometimes a few goes with "Format ram1_mdv" can reveal different corrupt files each time and it can be possible to restore the contents. I know that Simone in Italy has some more advanced software for data recovery, but it's probably only worth going that route if you know that the data on them is immensely important and worth saving at all costs.

I could do it, and would take extreme care, but obviously there can be no guarantee that you'll be able to access all files afterwards, as mentioned above. The Psion content can be restored at least.

I'm in Germany though, so slightly higher post than someone in the UK.

Chr$ wrote:I've re-felted about 200 in the last 4 months or so. More than half of those were carts that I got in lots and wanted to check out the contents of. The others were ones that I've sold, either as restored Psion software packs or as blanks. Apart from the carts that had had it in the first place and failed to format or hold data straight after re-felting, all have been fine and no one has complained yet.

Be aware though that even once re-felted the data on them is not always intact, especially for larger files like on the Psion carts. With my Psion carts I always re-felted, then formatted them 6x and then wrote the original software back on to them (from my vDrive after carefully noting what version of the Psion software was on them in the first place). Sometimes a few goes with "Format ram1_mdv" can reveal different corrupt files each time and it can be possible to restore the contents. I know that Simone in Italy has some more advanced software for data recovery, but it's probably only worth going that route if you know that the data on them is immensely important and worth saving at all costs.

I could do it, and would take extreme care, but obviously there can be no guarantee that you'll be able to access all files afterwards, as mentioned above. The Psion content can be restored at least.

I'm in Germany though, so slightly higher post than someone in the UK.

Hi Chr$

Thanks for your very detailed reply. I will send you s PM to discuss this further if that is ok?

Yes, of course.

Chr$ wrote:Yes, of course.

Hi Chr$

Did you receive a PM from me? I have not had a reply so checked my sent items and there is nothing showing in my Sent folder - very strange.

Retro-Mania wrote:

Chr$ wrote:Yes, of course.

Hi Chr$

Did you receive a PM from me? I have not had a reply so checked my sent items and there is nothing showing in my Sent folder - very strange.

No, nothing came. Perhaps you didn't press the final button.

Chr$ wrote:

Retro-Mania wrote:

Chr$ wrote:Yes, of course.

Hi Chr$

Did you receive a PM from me? I have not had a reply so checked my sent items and there is nothing showing in my Sent folder - very strange.

No, nothing came. Perhaps you didn't press the final button.

How annoying. I wondered why I had not had a reply. I shall try again ...

Chr$ wrote:I've re-felted about 200 in the last 4 months or so. More than half of those were carts that I got in lots and wanted to check out the contents of. The others were ones that I've sold, either as restored Psion software packs or as blanks. Apart from the carts that had had it in the first place and failed to format or hold data straight after re-felting, all have been fine and no one has complained yet.

Be aware though that even once re-felted the data on them is not always intact, especially for larger files like on the Psion carts. With my Psion carts I always re-felted, then formatted them 6x and then wrote the original software back on to them (from my vDrive after carefully noting what version of the Psion software was on them in the first place). Sometimes a few goes with "Format ram1_mdv" can reveal different corrupt files each time and it can be possible to restore the contents. I know that Simone in Italy has some more advanced software for data recovery, but it's probably only worth going that route if you know that the data on them is immensely important and worth saving at all costs.

I could do it, and would take extreme care, but obviously there can be no guarantee that you'll be able to access all files afterwards, as mentioned above. The Psion content can be restored at least.

I'm in Germany though, so slightly higher post than someone in the UK.

How silly of me, I posted a topic similar to this recently...should have just looked here. In any case, I wanted advice on re-felting on two fronts. First, what material do you use? I've found some soft but firm spongy stuff and I put a piece of scotch translucent tape over it to make it glide (and I don't cut it too thick). Second, I broke a few of the metal springs since I removed them to clean the residue and am thinking of getting some 0.1 mm copper sheets to cut new ones (as close approximations as possible). Have you had any of the springs break on you?

The metal springs are easily removed with tweezers, and replaced. I can do it 100% never breaking any.

Dave wrote:The metal springs are easily removed with tweezers, and replaced. I can do it 100% never breaking any.

Thanks. I too have replaced many a springs (i.e. removed and re-inserted them) but this one time I broke two of them :-/ They are simple to make and I measured them at 0.1 mm thick (dollar bill thickness in the US) so I guess I'll give it a try since the copper is under $2.