unclerichard wrote:
>
> My next door neighbour had her nephews staying one weekend. In the process
> of playing with her computer they inserted a3.5" into her FDD and it jammed.
>
> I suspect the metal phlange at the top was bent/distorted so preventing the
> FD from ejecting.
>
> As a consequence her FD is active and playing havoc with the prgs she runs.
>
> Is there any way of of ejecting (forcing) the Fd out without taking the FD
> out of the case?

There are times that trying to do this will worsen the situation.
Bending the read write head arms will render the drive useless and it
will have to be replaced.
>
> For some reason she is reluctant for the FD to be removed. She is also
> (very) reluctant to see force - specially brunt force - used to rememdy the
> situation.

At this point I would walk away from it. It's like taking your vehicle
in to be repaired. Anything that happens to it after that must have been
caused by the mechanic doing something wrong.
>
> Can anyone suggest a simple strategy I might employ to extract this bad
> mannered FD.

From my experience, I prefer to take the drive out and perform surgery
on it. As mentioned earlier, poking anything into the drive may render
it useless. I have successfully removed the metal piece on some drives
only to find it was a doa. The client tried their hand at removing it
before I got it.

I know you mean well but please proceed with caution. If you break it,
you may loose a friend and neighbor in one slip of a knife or screw
driver.

Sincerely,

Frank Suszka
netTek Computers
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