Unscrew the mechanism cover and try to see where it gets stuck, don't use force to pull. I hope it's not thick enough to hit the heads, the heads are not so sensitive but their mounting on the heads arms is.

As mentioned, remove the cover and gently push the cardboard down then pull it out.

Nerve33 wrote on 2024-02-13, 13:40:

The cardboard is stuck and I can't seem to remove it. This is my first 5.25 FDD, am I missing something? How would you remove it? Can inserting cardboard this thick damage the heads or other internal components?

As others have said, remove the cover and carefully inspect to find the problem before doing anything.

What people think of cardboard (cardboard boxes) was not what the shipping drive inserts were made of. They were specially stamped inserts, very thin, not really any different in shape than a floppy disk, with the drive lever clamped down on it when inserted. Sometimes people use a sacrificial floppy disk and I can't say it would help protect the heads, but if you do, don't permanently leave the disk in there if you can remember. I suspect late floppy drives might not really needed anything in shipping, but please don't try to substitute anything not made for the drive.

Thank you for all the advice.
Welp, apparently it's not even long enough to reach the heads.

Unfortunately pushing down on it doesn't help, it's stuck there pretty tightly. I guess I'm gonna have to disassemble it. Any advice on what parts I should be extra careful around? I assume that round piece in the middle that presses down on the disk is safe to remove?

Nerve33 wrote on 2024-02-13, 17:56:

Welp, apparently it's not even long enough to reach the heads.

I'm pretty sure this cardboard is stuck on the white plastic piece that's under the shaft of the door latch. In fact this might already be broken - though it's not cricital to the floppy drive operation.
This plastic piece should hinge up when the floppy is inserted and unlock the shaft to turn (in other words, in this drive you can't close the latch without a floppy - well not without excessive force that will destroy this lockout mechanism).

If you can free this plastic bit (try lifting it up a bit) then the carboard should come out. If it's still stuck then unscrew the small PCB in the upper left corner, it has the write protect sensor on it. Then the lower PCB, closer to the spindle, that one has the index hole sensor. If you lift those two a bit then there should not be anything else in there that the cardboard could rip out when pulled. If you don't mind some cleaning afterwards you can get the cardboard wet, at least in some places, to make it rip apart so that you can remove it in pieces.

Deunan wrote on 2024-02-13, 18:39:

If you can free this plastic bit (try lifting it up a bit) then the carboard should come out. If it's still stuck then unscrew the small PCB in the upper left corner, it has the write protect sensor on it. Then the lower PCB, closer to the spindle, that one has the index hole sensor.

Hoooly moly! Removing the PCBs did it, thank you so much! And as for the white plastic piece, it does look chipped, but I think that's just regular wear and tear, it closes fine even without a disk. Doesn't look great, but I'm not sure if it affects anything tbh

the3dfxdude wrote on 2024-02-13, 16:54:

What people think of cardboard (cardboard boxes) was not what the shipping drive inserts were made of.

When I asked the seller to put a piece of thin cardboard in I thought they'd use something like a cereal box, not one of those cardboard boxes used for shipping. I mean that thing barely fits into the slot. I guess I should've been clearer when emailing them, but damn

Nerve33 wrote on 2024-02-13, 19:50:

And as for the white plastic piece, it does look chipped, but I think that's just regular wear and tear, it closes fine even without a disk.

Yup, broken. Some gorilla tried to close the latch without a floppy, and hard. There is a short metal rod that goes throught the shaft directly over the plastic bit - it should rest on the plastic and not allow the shaft to turn. Unless a floppy is inserted and the white plastic bit is hinged up, so that it will not get in the way of the metal rod.
The whole idea here is not to allow the heads to come too close without a floppy, so that they don't bang on each other with strong enough vibrations. Just don't leave the drive closed without a floppy or a piece of thick paper that would separate the heads and you will be fine even transporting the drive.

Nerve33 wrote on 2024-02-13, 19:50:

When I asked the seller to put a piece of thin cardboard in I thought they'd use something like a cereal box, not one of those cardboard boxes used for shipping. I mean that thing barely fits into the slot. I guess I should've been clearer when emailing them, but damn

And it didn't even reach the heads... The one thing the paper was supposed to protect.

EDIT: On second thought, it's better it didn't reach the heads. It would've ripped them off probably. BTW that drive could use some cleaning, at least dust removal.

Deunan wrote on 2024-02-13, 20:01:

Yup, broken. Some gorilla tried to close the latch without a floppy, and hard.

Damn, that sucks, good thing it's nothing major, here's hoping that's the only thing that's broken.

Deunan wrote on 2024-02-13, 20:01:

BTW that drive could use some cleaning, at least dust removal.

Yeah, definitely gonna hit it with some compressed air and isopropyl. It's even worse irl than on the photos, the heads arms are completely covered in dust
Thanks again for all the help and the info, you've been a huge help

Speaking of gorillas, I knew a person who used a rubber mallet on the hard disk on his PC, to make it spin-up (no kidding).

The real culprit was the power supply, though, I think.
It didn't have enough power to handle the power surge needed by the HDD to spin-up.

I can't believe someone jammed in a thick piece of cardboard like that. I expect the heads have probably been knocked off, or out of alignment.

Would have been much better to get cardboard that comes with a business shirt, and cut it to fit in neatly.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-02-16, 05:04:

Speaking of gorillas, I knew a person who used a rubber mallet on the hard disk on his PC, to make it spin-up (no kidding).

The real culprit was the power supply, though, I think.
It didn't have enough power to handle the power surge needed by the HDD to spin-up.

Guilty as charged!
Tho in a more controlled manner.
I used to manage (we were a small team) about 500 or so PC's in a large factory, mostly Compaq's but a few other bands and even a handful of Mac's.
This is when the bleeding edge were Pentium Pros, and most of the fleet were still using 486's.

Anyways the Compaq's came with really unreliable HDD's (Quantums? my memory fails me).
And trying to recover data from broken HDD's became an unofficial part of my job.
The amount of unsaved documents ppl had been working on "for weeks" still astounds me, despite us having courses on how to secure data etc.
So being able to recover data from a crashed system would be a very nice bonus.
This is where the mallets come into play =)
First step in coaxing a drive that wont spin up was usually to twist it fast in your hands when powering on.
Second step was the mallet, tap on the side trying to shock the spindle to start rotating.
After that it was the freezer for 10 mins or so, then repeat step 1 and 2.
If it still wouldn't come alive it was time to start swapping parts.
PCB first, swapped from an identical but working drive.
Still no go? well its time to get intrusive.
We actually had access to a positive pressure cabinet (used for testing our products in the lab).
So off with the lid.
Rotate the platters to free them, apply power and help the arms start moving, etc.

Success rate was probably >50%, probably because almost all theese HDD's failed in a similar way.
Funny enough the higher up in the corporate ladder the less likely ppl were to follow simple procedures to save their data.
We never had any problems with the secretary's 🤣.
Managed to restore our CEO's drive, which included a very detailed CV he really wanted back.
He was looking for another job and no one else knew at that time (I kept the secret).
2 months later i get headhunted to the CEO's new company with 2x the pay =)
In the new job I didn't have to use a rubber mallet =)