format PC floppy to use on Amiga?

[amiman99]

I dont have Win 7, so I'm not sure, but on Win XP I can't format disks as Double Density 720Kb. First try to cover the High Density hole (HD disks have 2 holes, cover them both)
The way I would do it is to format the disks in Amiga first. You will need OS3 with PC0: installed (or CrossDos). Insert the disk and click on the PC0:? icon, then select format.
Even if you can't format on win XP, or maybe 7, you should be able to read and write to it on those Win machines.

[amiman99]

First you need to tell us what Amiga you have, what Workbench/Kickstart version and how much ram? Then we can find a proper solution.

[amiman99]

You can not boot from PC disks, but you can use them to copy files from PC to Amiga. Mostly I used them to copy LHA files to Amiga.
To make your workbench read PC disks, go to "Sys:Storage/DosDrivers" folder and copy file labeled PC0 to Sys: Devs/DosDrivers, that's it.
Reboot the Amiga and it should work.
When you insert a disk you should see 2 disk icons, one an typical floppy icon and other PC0:?, when you click on that icon and select format, that disk will be readable on PC.

[amiman99]

I have another idea,
Go here http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm get win95 or dos bootdisk.
Boot with one of those disks, then use the command to format for 720K disks.

Some Amiga drives don't like to format HD disks, maybe that's the problem.

[amiman99]

The OP wants Amiga formatted disks, so this won't work.

Sometimes Amiga does not like HD disks formatted in DD (I have seen that), maybe if you format them to 720k first then you may be able to format to 880k in Amiga.

[amiman99]

The OP wants Amiga formatted disks, so this won't work.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. As I said the relative new "amiga" floppy disks format fine. The very old "amiga" floppy disks (which data is also corrupt) don't format. Then I found some "amiga" floppy disks which when format give an error on some cylinder and then when I format again give an error on another cylinder and the previous cylinder is formatted successfully. The “pc” floppy disks never work and format always fail on cylinder zero.

I understand this might be a problem with the age and amount of dust in the drive … therefore I was wondering; does anyone know how to clean the floppy drive?? need to use any special liquid??

If you are not affraid to open you floppy drive then you can use cotton swabs and 91% isopropyl alcohol. Just swab both heads clean.