>Gents:
> I have a Sparc IPX with a bad floppy drive. The hard drive does not
>have an OS on it. I was thinking of using an iMac running Mac OS x 10.0.4
as a
>netboot server. Anyone have any thoughts as to how this is to be done?
Thanks!


Remove the drive.  The top cover of the floppy just snaps on (look carefully
and
you will see how it grabs hold of the drive itself).  Carefully remove this
(without
bending or deforming the cover -- you need to put it back on, later!).

With a can of compressed air, blow out all the dust that has accumulated in
the
drive mechanism.  GENTLY rotate the head actuator (a "screw" type of drive
system) just to make sure any grease hasn't got it "frozen" in place.

Reattach the cover.

Flip the drive over.  You will see a large (black?) circular cover housing
the
motor (actually, there are surface mounted *coils* under that cover) that
spins the diskette.  In the center of this circular cover is a ~1/2" cutout
for the hub/shaft.  There is no need to remove the cover -- you should be
able
to spin that shaft using the tip of your finger if you are patient.

Now, using an electric eraser (or, the eraser end of a pencil in the chuck
of a variable speed drill), hold the eraser against the outer edge of this
hub at a 45 degree angle to the axis.  With *gentle* pressure, turn the
eraser/drill on.  This will start the hub spinning ("friction drive").
Don't
press too hard -- avoid slippage between the eraser and hub since that will
lead to "eraser shavings" being produced (which woould then need to be
cleaned out, thoroughly!).

Get the disk hub spinning reasonably fast (300RPM) for a few seconds to
loosen it up.

Make sure everything is clean of any new debris that may have been created
in the process.  Then, reassemble the IPX.

Note, this is just a stopgap "quicky" method of getting the drive working
good enough to load a few diskettes.  Usually, the drive isn't needed
much afterwards.

If you really want to *restore* the drive, then there are better ways of
doing it...

HTH,
--don