will old disks damade a new miggy's floppy drive?

[pubzombie]

Hi folks,
I have just been given a whole bag of Amiga games on floppies. They have been in a friends loft for the best part of a decade and then in his garage for 18months waiting to be taken to the tip. Some are obviously moisture damaged as the ink has run on the disk labels, although my friend assures me they have had no direct contact with water, and the whole lot smells a bit musty. However, some are double bagged and look fine on the surface of the outer plastic casing and the internal data disk. I have just got a brand new Amiga1200 ‘old’ new stock from amigakit.co.uk. CAN I DAMAGE MY NEW MIGGY’S FLOPPY DRIVE BY TRYING TO USE THEM? Is there a way of cleaning them up? Will giving them a spin in an old pc floppy disk drive be any use or should I just bin them?
They are currently just sat in the front room warming up.
Cheers guys
PZ

[ZeBeeDee]

They should be fine to use. Bear in mind there may be software titles in the bag that won't work on the A1200. But there are ways around that  :-)

[orange]

I wouldn't worry too much. you might only make the drive heads dirty and that can be cleaned. anyway the FDD is replaceable.

still, maybe it would be a good idea to use external FDD for checking diskettes. otherwise, you should inspect each one of them visually.

BTW, there are hacks on aminet for using PC FDD as external Amiga drive.

hm, you might even use PC for testing, there are 'hacks' like the one that needs two drives.

[rednova]

Hi friend:

I think just age on a disk will not damage your system. It will be fine. The only way the disk will not work is if there is something wrong with the disk, like maybe the metal part was screwed or the disk inside was fu*cked, as if a needle was poked thru it. I have disks 15 years old and they work just fine on my amiga 1200. But of course I kept them in good condition. Just be careful, only use disks that seem to be in good condition. As I said, age is not the issue, is how well kept the disk is. Also, you can buy an 'extra' floppy disk drive, it hooks right into the amiga and then you can use it good and protects from using the include floppy drive. An external floppy disk drive is super. Also, if you play games that come in two disks, if you have the external drive, you can use both together without having to swap disks.
Cheers!!!

rednova

[rustednail]

As everyone is saying, the age shouldn't be a factor.  If the disks are now dry, they are probably ok as well.  Just do a quick check of the disks.  

Does the metal cover slide easily?  While you have that door open, look at the surface of the disk inside.  Does it have a lot of dust on it or moisture stains?

Will the disk (inside part) turn or move around?  the metal round part in the middle of the disk, don't press to hard on that though.

At any rate.  As long as the metal (some times plastic) door opens easily and the disk spins inside the drive, it should not harm your disk drive.

[pubzombie]

"BTW, there are hacks on aminet for using PC FDD as external Amiga drive."

wow ok have u used these can u recomend one?
thanx guys - external is still a must as well i think

[orb85750]

Really??  I was told that special (and expensive) catweasel hardware was necessary.  For that price one could almost buy another A1200, right?

Note: There definitely are some major game incompatibility problems with the A1200, as I was disappointed to find out.  My A1200 is sitting in the closet right now.  I'm trying to find some use for it, but PPC expansion is too expensive for me.  What was your motivation for buying the A1200?

-Dave

pubzombie wrote:
"BTW, there are hacks on aminet for using PC FDD as external Amiga drive."

wow ok have u used these can u recomend one?
thanx guys - external is still a must as well i think

[rkauer]

orb85750 wrote:
Really??  I was told that special (and expensive) catweasel hardware was necessary.  For that price one could almost buy another A1200, right?

 Catweasel is only needed to read/write Amiga floppy disks on a pc!

Note: There definitely are some major game incompatibility problems with the A1200, as I was disappointed to find out.  My A1200 is sitting in the closet right now.  I'm trying to find some use for it, but PPC expansion is too expensive for me.  What was your motivation for buying the A1200?

 To "fix" ancient games for A1200/4000 (and even to install them on other winchester-based Amigas), the WHDLoad program is the fix!

 No need for PPC or even a full expensive accelerator, any 4Mb RAM expansion will suffice for WHDLoad games.

[ChuckT]

Does the floppy head actually touch the disks or not?

I think the danger is that the garage may be subject to humidity and dust unless the disks were in a box.  Most garages are unheated or not air-conditioned and I'm not an expert on the material.  I would be worry if the disk doesn't rotate freely that it would be likely to wear out the drive motor from making it hot but I've seen my brother force disks to work until he copied them.

I would probably open the shutter on one of the disks, take a picture and then open the shutter on a disk of similar age that hasn't been in a garage and take a picture.  Then take a picture of the inside of one which is new.  What is the actual difference?

It has been like 20 years but I've never cleaned the heads on my 1541 disk drive and it always worked.  I heard all these rumors that vacuum cleaners could erase your disks but my brother and I took a kitchen magnet to one of them and couldn't destroy the data but someone told me that it depends on how fast you remove the magnet.  

I've heard stories that you can destroy your VCR with head cleaners because they are like sand paper.

I think you have to have a visual inspection of the head because something wiping against the disk drive head can also wedge dirt in there and I've also heard that rubbing alcohol leaves a residue whereas isopropyl alcohol is something like 90% alcohol but it should say on the bottle.

Sometimes it is better to leave them alone if they are working than to try to clean them.

If you are worried and want to take a chance, copy them onto newer media and don't use the older disks again unless the original fails.

I think you could actually research how these disks were manufactured, what types of material were used and is it such a material that would flake off?  I suppose that if it did and if you were an expert on taking the drive apart, you could clean the head with a Q-Tip but there are no guarantees in life because things break and stuff happens.

[ChuckT]

"The 3½-inch disk is made of two pieces of rigid plastic, with the fabric-medium-fabric sandwich in the middle to remove dust and dirt. The front has only a label and a small aperture for reading and writing data, protected by a spring-loaded metal or plastic cover, which is pushed back on entry into the drive."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

The question now is what portion the magnetic media is on.  Is it inside the plastic?

[orange]

wow ok have u used these can u recomend one?

um, actually no. I did plan to but there were other priorities..
here are some links:
floppyint.lha
PCFloppy2Amiga.lha


@ChuckT
yes, both heads do touch disk.

[rockape]

Hi,

If these are copies on standard Amiga floppy disks beware there may be a virus lurking on one of them !

regards, Michael

aka rockape

[Ilwrath]

If these are copies on standard Amiga floppy disks beware there may be a virus lurking on one of them !

Yep, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking.  Now, an Amiga boot sector virus won't damage the computer itself in any way.  But it'll wipe out each disk you insert after the virus is triggered.

Remember to power the system off for at least 10 seconds after playing each disk.  Just hitting CTRL-LAmiga-RAmiga won't do it.  The virus will stay hidden in memory.  Cold-Capture vector, I think it was called.  The Amiga needs a full power-cycle after unknown disks.  

And as for an A1200.  Personally, I think it's the best retro gaming machine.  WHDLoad will give you compatibility with some things that are picky, and really, Degrader or Tude will handle most anything, as well.  There are very few games that don't play right on the A1200 with a little coaxing, and many play nicer than original, with WHDLoad taking over and no floppy swapping...  

[pubzombie]

I have just downloaded WHDload and registered it
i will not use any/all of those disks as there was actually mould on a few - an original North and South - and a money spider living in another:)I have put them away - I am a hoarder. besides I have just been given a few original disks by an old friend ;Alien Bread special edition and two microprose flight sims F19 and Knights of the Sky. have not tested them yet but dont think the later 2 are A1200 compatible.
cheers
PZ