Amiga A1200 saving issues

[mradam83]

Hi all.

I've just got an A1200 off my mum for Christmas and I've booted up a couple of games and it seems to work fine.

However, after trying to save 2 games I've found that they don't save at all - on one game, it says file error and another makes out like it's saved but when you reboot the game, the save file is not there and blatantly hasn't saved.

Does anyone have any idea why it could be? I've also used a disk cleaner on it but I'm having the same issue afterwards so I took the drive out and tried another drive that I bought years ago for a project and that didn't even work - so the floppy that was in it seems to work perfectly other than not saving.

It will also delete information from the discs and format discs, but won't save anything still.

Cheers,

Adam

[danbeaver]

Any chance you would list what games, whether they were loaded off original floppies, hard drive, via WHDload, and any other specifics of your set up (Kickstart, RAM, HDD, and stuff)?

 If not, we'll just use telepathy, voodoo, Astral Projection, mass spectrometry, and high performance liquid chromatography to help solve the issue.

[SACC-guy]

My guess is the floppy disk is write protected.
Good thing that.

M

[danbeaver]

That makes good sense too!

[ElPolloDiabl]

Games disk are usually not for saving. Format a couple of disks and use those.
Also if you are using HD floppies they may give you trouble.
The later AT1200 has a different floppy. Search here for a solution.

[mradam83]

I was using Frontier Elite and Knightmare - in both instances none of the discs are write protected, as the Amiga prompts me that they are write protected and both times I tried to save it was on a formatted blank disc - the Amiga will format and delete absolutely fine.

It was on the standard DFO floppy, no whd load is installed (my Amiga is a standard 1200 3.0 with no modifications to it) and no HD is involved. The discs were original and i tried to save on blank standard floppies both times. I also tried it with a backup of Frontier and I have the same issue as with the original game.

I've also managed to load up old save games from 20 years ago and they load fine - just won't save.

Since I made this post, I have tried another original game Premier Manager 2 and that has the same issue. As before, to save I was using formatted blank floppies that are non write protected and the same issue occurs. If you save the game, it makes out like it's been saved and when you re-load the floppy that you have saved the game onto back in, the save game you have just made has gone.

[danbeaver]

Are you saying the drive loads fine, but doesn't save?  Is the write-enable hole covered?  Is the write-protect sensor in the drive working?

[ElPolloDiabl]

He said he cleaned the drive. He also said he tried a different floppy drive.
Next to check is the power supply. Is the floppy getting enough power?

[mradam83]

All I have sorted it! I opened the Amiga up and my Mrs gave it a clean with a soft make up brush and now it saves fine! So it was just very dusty.

I'm so relieved. Thank you all for taking the time to reply and try and help me out.

[paul1981]

All I have sorted it! I opened the Amiga up and my Mrs gave it a clean with a soft make up brush and now it saves fine! So it was just very dusty.

I'm so relieved. Thank you all for taking the time to reply and try and help me out.

Sounds to me like your Amiga just wanted a good tickling with a makeup brush! My 2nd thought was use of HD Floppies (extra hole located opposite the write-protect hole). AT A1200's were fitted with modified PC HD floppy drives and those drives do not permit the use of HD floppies as DD floppies unless you tape over the extra hole.

When my A1200's floppy died in the mid 90's I got a replacement drive from Gordon Harwood computers in Alfreton, Derbyshire. This drive had the same issue. You can always spot these replacement modified drives as they have a green led activity light on the actual drive.