levelLORD wrote:
I'm not quite sure what are you referring to, but if you are trying to use HD disks in Amiga 500, that wouldn't work. You need DD floppy disk to copy from source to destination. Destination disk must be DD disk. Source disk, I assume is DD. Which app are you using for disk copy?
Regards,
levelLORD
The main difference is the little hole in the corner of a HD (High Density) disk. If you have 2.x and are trying to shuffle things back and forth with the built-in CrossDOS support, you'll have to wedge something sturdy into the hole - without interfering with the disk - and cover it with tape. Most HD floppy mechanisms use a physical switch to detect the hole, so it has to be enough to push it down as an old DD floppy would. If you're only using them in the DD Amiga drives (pre-1200), they shouldn't have switches/sensors for such, so that wouldn't be a problem.
Next up are slight differences in the ferrous emulsion of the disk; the magnetic sensitivity specified for DD and HD is a bit different, since HD needs higher 'resolution' in the magnetic layer, and the magnetic write power was a bit different between the two specs, etc. You could often get by without worrying about it (I own a bunch of DD disks 'doubled' with a special punch back when HDs were more expensive, and the converse has held for quick transfers using the 'hole-blocking method above), but it's something to consider when looking for reliability. Further, if you're trying to read decades-old floppies, you have to consider they may have degraded naturally by now...
...or your floppy could be out of alignment, or just need a simple cleaning.
If the power supply is a problem (I don't have schematics around, so I couldn't tell you if it supplies a voltage *only* used by the floppy and nothing else), there's nothing 'holy' about the mysterious C128-style plug. If you're positive that's the problem, and have half an ounce of soldering skill, you can slice the power supply cord about 3 inches back, pull out a continuity tester/ohmmeter, match up the colors to a new set of connectors of your choice (a DIN could probably cram in that spot on the 500's backplate, with some creative bending of pins?), and do the simple resoldering on the 500 and the PS. If you *do* do this, the savvy thing to do is to get 3 of your favorite new sort of connector - one for the power supply cord, one for the 500... and a third to solder on to the possibly-flaky original square connector, so you're left with an 'adaptor stub' around if you ever want to try reusing the supply on a normal machine with the original connector.
And/or you could just clean the power connections with some WD40 and pipecleaners... (Don't use lubricants on the floppy heads, though!)