520STfm DIsk drive question

[Seeker]

I just took out my 520STfm from my attic where it's been stored since around 2001. Do I need to check out anything before I turn it on? Will the disk drive require servicing? I'm not afraid of opening up the machine If necessary.

[DoG]

If you find it not working you could do service on it.

Disks get old and some have degraded to a degree that it leaves residue when the read head is laying on the disk and it spins. Also dust and other particles can accumulate on the read heads. If you noticing more and more disks get read error this could be your problem. So open up drive and clean the read heads with a lent free swab and Isopropanol.

Mechanical part can be lubricated. 'Disk write' and 'disk inserted' switch could have bad contacts. Clean with contact cleaner spray.

Capacitors that is this old dries out, so that could also be a problem. Recap is the solution. Also bad voltage from the PSU could lead to problems. Potentially you need to recap there as well. Bad voltage lead to unstable system and crashes.

Misaligned read head could also occur but it rarely happens. Hard to fix.

Corrosion on motherboard could also be a problem. How was the Atari stored? Also old spillage from drinks could have made it corrode. Depending of how severe the corrosion is, it could be a massive problem.

Many of us uses Gotek instead of disk drive.

[Seeker]

Where do you get the Goteks?
It was stored in my attic inside it's box. It's not very humid.
Thank you for your reply.

[simonsunnyboy]

Where do you get the Goteks?

I buy mine at Amazon (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01CTY28CC) but these come with the unusable stock firmware. I reflash them with FlashFloppy afterwards.

By googling you should be able to find preflashed ones or you can directly go for Goex aswell.

[Seeker]

Thanks! I will be getting one of those. I read about them and they sound amazing!

[Seeker]

One more quick question, Are the Goteks hard to install? Do they all come in the same size?