Getting out of his car, this septuagenarian dropped a 100MB Zip disc
in the gutter, which had water in it. He picked it up, shook off the
water, and took it into the kitchen where he disassembled on clean
paper towels, and left it to dry after sponging off moisture on the
"pads." He now wants to put it back together, but doesn't know how to
put the spring in attached to the sliding metal "opener" and in what
order the pieces should be put together. He wants a fax showing how
this is done, or a reference to a web location where illustrations
clearly show how this is done. Written instructions might be helpful,
but won't hack it. I gotta see it in pictures.

Hello misterq2!

After disassembling and reassembling two zip discs, you might be
interested in knowing that it was found to be unnecessary to put the
spring back into the zip disc in order to read data off of the disc.
Of course, you would not want to use it in that condition regularly.

If you are still interested in fully reassembling the disk here are
instructions with picture links:

The order the pieces should be put back together is as follows:

1. Lay the two clamshell plastic casing pieces onto their backs. Put
the felt pieces on top of them, they should be flush against the
plastic casing pieces.

2. On the bottom clamshell plastic casing piece, put the "jeweled"
piece onto the bottom corner. The "jeweled" piece is the translucent
piece of plastic smaller than a quarter with refractive elements.
Without this piece the disk will not work at all.

3. Lay the black data disc on the bottom clamshell with the hub
protruding through the open hole in the casing so that it looks like a
finished disc.
Picture here:

4. Put the spring into place. Picture here: closeuplowerhalf.jpg

5. Put the top part of the clamshell casing on top of everything (felt
piece should be with this piece).

6. Pick the "sandwich" up gently, with the open part on top, the
spring should be sticking out. Picture here:

7. Tuck the end of the spring into the small vertical slot.

8. Screw the sandwich together, using the four screws.

9. Put the metal "sliding door" piece onto the disc by first sliding
in the side with the smaller square on top. It should catch onto the
spring.

10. You are done.

Good luck!
~ nancydrew-ga

Research:
Done offline, by hand, with the assistance of alienintelligence
(fellow Google Answers Researcher).
Search Terms Used:
None

---

Clarification of Answer by nancydrew-ga on 03 Sep 2003 15:38 PDT

Sorry, my links got killed!

Pictures listed by instruction number:

3. [ http://www.offlinetshirts.com/ga/SpringDetail1.jpg ]
 
4. [ http://www.offlinetshirts.com/ga/CloseUpLowerHalf.jpg ] 
  
6. [ http://www.offlinetshirts.com/ga/SpringDetail2.jpg ]

Great, complete, helpful answer. Plus, in addition to getting all the
information I needed, I got to see one of nancydrew's dainty fingers
in the pictures she sent!

Thank you!

However, the finger in the shot belonged to Mr. "alienintelligence"
who was instrumental in solving this "case".

I hope you got your data back!

~ nancydrew

Yes thank you, I retrieved all my data. However, I never was able to
get he spring correctly hooked up. I'm figuring it will be safer to
put it all on another disc. Thanks again!