Many ADF disks don't work

[pmack]

Hello all,

I just got an Amiga 500 (1.3 OS, one external 3.5 disk drive, 512Kb, no expansion) a few weeks ago and was able to setup a null modem connection between the Amiga and my pc using Amiga Explorer.

However, even though I can copy files to disks without a problem most of the times (sometimes I get a checksum error but not always) but the majority of games don't seem to work. Some of them will simply not boot (I get the blue disk screen) and some of them will get me the 'this game was craked by...' screen but then it just keeps that in a loop.

I know Amiga Explorer is working because a few games do work (Arkanoid, Pacman, etc) but I don't understand why so many others don't. Could it be bad ADF files? I am getting mine from www.planetemu.net and www.thegamearchives.com ... or could it be that high density disks are messing this up? (I did format all of them on the amiga side)

Any suggestion is highly appreciated
Thanks

[mfletcher]

Its likely that its the HD floppies you are using. Try taping over the hole on the right hand side of the floppy, not the floppy protect tab and try again?

[paul1981]

My first thought is that you'll be needing more memory.  If a disk based game requires 1MB of ram (most of them), then those games are definitely not going to work on a 512kb machine.  Also, it will either freeze or crash because those games were meant for a machine with 1MB and upwards, and were programmed assuming this configuration.
You can buy cheap memory expansions from e-bay though that will slot into the trapdoor on the underside of your A500 and give you 1MB in total.  It will be called a 512k chip memory expansion.
Another thought is that those HD disks you are using aren't liked an awful lot by your DD disk drive.  Try writing the same ADF to the same disk 2 or 3 times in succession.
Another thought is that your disk drive heads may be in need of cleaning.
Another thought is your ROM.  You have version 1.3....some games may require version 2.0 with 1MB (ie an A500+).  Again, you can purchase 2.0 ROMS / ROM switcher for your A500 from ebay.
Hope to have been some help.

[koaftder]

DSHD media is unreliable on DHDD drives. That being said, some DSHD disks seem to work fine, others not, even coming from the same brand new box! Compound this with the fact that new floppy media isn't manufactured as well as in years past, using floppies on the amiga is a pain in the ass.

For a good detailed description of floppy media see the following:
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html

[ElPolloDiabl]

The external floppy takes up 100k of memory so disconnect that until you get the 512k expansion (better still get get a sideport ram expansion it will give you a 10% speed boost as well).

Also look around for some double density floppies. The problem is that the high density floppies need a stronger magnetic force and so are not reliable on an Amiga.

[runequester]

back in the day, my buddy with a 500 couldn't format HD disks, though if we formatted them on my 1200 first, they'd read just fine.

[som99]

Well as many said, it might be the HD disks. Tho my experiance with amiga explorer and the a500 you will have trouble writing disks with less then 1MB memory.

Dont worry about your 1.3 rom, you will not need a 2.0 rom for many games, also as someone said you might need 1MB expansion to run alot of games, I dont realy think that is the issue because most games requiering 1MB to run will tell you that when you try to start them.

so get an memory expansion, clean your disk drive, try to get a hold of DD disks and try again.
also try formating the disks a few times and try to write the game that do not work again on another disk.

[Cammy]

As some others have mentioned, it could be dirty heads in your floppy drive, so ANY Amiga user still trying to use floppy disks MUST get themselves a drive-cleaning kit. These things are usually just a disk with a scrubbing pad inside them that you drop a little bit of cleaning alcohol on, you insert it and let the drive try to read it a few times, and then the heads are cleaned. Once I put one of these disks through four of my Amigas, it fixed all the read error problems I was getting. I use HD disks in all my Amigas and don't have problems with them, although it wouldn't hurt to try writing each disk twice or three times so the image definitely burns in. Don't worry about covering the extra hole with sticky tape, as only HD drives have a problem with HD disks formatted as DD, and since the A500 is DD the drive doesn't have the hole-checking mechanism. Some newer A1200s and A4000s do, but no A500s.

Also, when you get a game that comes up with a cracker screen, you generally just have to click the mouse buttons to skip past it and get to the game. Many ADFs that you download will be cracked, and they generally have these little demo/scrollers at the start, sometimes followed by a trainer for unlimited lives and other cheats. On nearly any crack, clicking the mouse button (or the fire button on player 2's joystick) should get you into the game.

If your A500 doesn't have that extra 512k trapdoor memory, you definitely need it! It's probably the reason most software isn't running.

[koaftder]

As some others have mentioned, it could be dirty heads in your floppy drive, so ANY Amiga user still trying to use floppy disks MUST get themselves a drive-cleaning kit. These things are usually just a disk with a scrubbing pad inside them that you drop a little bit of cleaning alcohol on, you insert it and let the drive try to read it a few times, and then the heads are cleaned. Once I put one of these disks through four of my Amigas, it fixed all the read error problems I was getting. I use HD disks in all my Amigas and don't have problems with them, although it wouldn't hurt to try writing each disk twice or three times so the image definitely burns in. Don't worry about covering the extra hole with sticky tape, as only HD drives have a problem with HD disks formatted as DD, and since the A500 is DD the drive doesn't have the hole-checking mechanism. Some newer A1200s and A4000s do, but no A500s.

Also, when you get a game that comes up with a cracker screen, you generally just have to click the mouse buttons to skip past it and get to the game. Many ADFs that you download will be cracked, and they generally have these little demo/scrollers at the start, sometimes followed by a trainer for unlimited lives and other cheats. On nearly any crack, clicking the mouse button (or the fire button on player 2's joystick) should get you into the game.

If your A500 doesn't have that extra 512k trapdoor memory, you definitely need it! It's probably the reason most software isn't running.

Head cleaners don't solve major problems like alignment. Rewriting disks doesn't do much to reinforce patterns on the media. On floppy drives, you can't guarantee being able to rewrite directly over the exact same spots on a track as far as I know from reading the RKRM manual I have which describes some of the process.

[koaftder]

As some others have mentioned, it could be dirty heads in your floppy drive, so ANY Amiga user still trying to use floppy disks MUST get themselves a drive-cleaning kit. These things are usually just a disk with a scrubbing pad inside them that you drop a little bit of cleaning alcohol on, you insert it and let the drive try to read it a few times, and then the heads are cleaned. Once I put one of these disks through four of my Amigas, it fixed all the read error problems I was getting. I use HD disks in all my Amigas and don't have problems with them, although it wouldn't hurt to try writing each disk twice or three times so the image definitely burns in. Don't worry about covering the extra hole with sticky tape, as only HD drives have a problem with HD disks formatted as DD, and since the A500 is DD the drive doesn't have the hole-checking mechanism. Some newer A1200s and A4000s do, but no A500s.

Also, when you get a game that comes up with a cracker screen, you generally just have to click the mouse buttons to skip past it and get to the game. Many ADFs that you download will be cracked, and they generally have these little demo/scrollers at the start, sometimes followed by a trainer for unlimited lives and other cheats. On nearly any crack, clicking the mouse button (or the fire button on player 2's joystick) should get you into the game.

If your A500 doesn't have that extra 512k trapdoor memory, you definitely need it! It's probably the reason most software isn't running.

Head cleaners don't solve major problems like alignment. Rewriting disks doesn't do much to reinforce patterns on the media. On floppy drives, you can't guarantee being able to rewrite directly over the exact same spots on a track as far as I know from reading the RKRM manual I have which describes some of the process. HD media isn't reliable on amiga DD drives, it's hit and miss.

[Cammy]

Yes, a head cleaning disk won't fix misaligned heads. It also can't fix leaking capacitors and batteries, can't change the oil in a car, and won't solve global warming. It does however fix one of the most common problems for old Amiga computers, dirty heads. If you eliminate the possibility of dirty heads first, and the disks still won't work, you can move onto the next suggested sollution, but at least try this first! It has solved read errors in many of my Amiga floppy drives and now they all have no problem reading from the HD disks I use to write old games onto.

Writing the disk more than once probably doesn't help, but re-writing one that doesn't work the first time can sometimes produce a working disk the second or third time.