Question on CD-Roms & Floppy drives

I work in a factory where there is alot of dust... and the CD-ROMs in several systems have stopped working (same with 3.5 floppy drives).

Wondering if once a CD-ROM/Floppy drive stop working (due to dust or the like) can they be cleaned out and/or fixed?

Then again... is it really worth it or should I just junk them? (properly of course)

thanks

 

If the floppy drives are still used for something, it's easier to replace 'em than to try to clean 'em. New floppy drives are only about $10 at any PC store. To clean a CD drive, use some canned air or an air compressor to blow it out with the drawer open and not powered on; you can open a non-powered CD drive by using a straightened out paper clip in the little hole on the front of the drive. Once it's been blown out really well, power up the PC and run a lens cleaner disc through it as described in the instructions that come with the lens cleaning disc. Some of these come with a liquid, but in the few cases where I've personally used a lens cleaner, I never used the liquid and it worked OK. However, if the brushes on the cleaning disc are coarse or stiff, you may want to use the liquid to avoid scratching the lens . . . or just buy new drives LOL You can get new DVD burners for under $35 online, the PC store where I work sells used tested CDRW/DVDROM combo drives for $10, used std CDROM drives are only $5.