3.5 inch DD or HD disk questions

[ArthurDent]

Hi all,

I've downloaded some legal games from the Back2theRoots site, wich come in a .ADF format. I've transferred them from the PC to the Amiga succesfully, and have installed a program called ADFBlitzer to write the disks to floppy's.

However.. so far I can only extract to DD disks that I've formatted in my Amiga (880K). I'd like to be able to use HD disks, since they are more easy to come by. (The only DD disks I have left are from my ancient MSX system, and I like to keep those). I was hoping that by taping up the hole on the bottom-right corner the Amiga would think of the HD as a DD disk. This seems to work only partially: After formatting I get a nameless 880k formatted medium. However, when I use ADFBlitzer to restore a game, the disk becomes unrecognizable again.

So, here are my questions:

1. Is it possible to use HD disks in the Amiga, using the manner mentioned above or another way?
2. If not, does anybody know a good adress for DD disks, preferably in the Netherlands?

Thanks for any replies!

[amiga1260]

If you want to read HD disks you have to use an HD diskdrive. These diskdrives are very expensive. You could look at http://www.amigis.nl/sparepr.html#floppy. or at www.marktplaats.nl.

If you are looking for DD disks, you could order from www.compcity.nl or ask your PC owning friends for DD disks.

[orange]

amiga1260: you didn't understand him; he wants to use HD floppys as DD.
covering the hole isnt the "whole" solution, 'cause the material that diskettes are made of is different. So, the diskette might work for a while but it will be UNRELIABLE.

It could be that the diskette is unrecognisable because its NODOS game..

[nex4060]

I would just like to add :-) that I havn't had any problem using a HD floppy drive and HD disk where i have covered the "HD" hole to make the HD floppy drive think that the disk is a DD disk.
But you have to cover the "HD" hole on the disk otherwise the drive will read the disk as a HD disk even though it has been written as a DD disk :-)

[ArthurDent]

Thanks both for your suggestions and insights!

@Orange: So what you're saying is taping HD-disks *might* work, but they are more unstable? One of the games I downloaded is indeed a NDOS game. It works when I unpack and boot it from a DD disk, but not when I do the same with a taped-off HD disk. Maybe the HD-disk was a bit faulty in the first place... Is there any point in me experimenting some more with it, or do you think all attempts are going to fail?

@Amiga1260: Thanks for the references, especially the compcity.nl one! It looks like I'll be doing some shopping in the future. :-) Not for one of those HD-drives though.. those things are indeed expensive!! :-o

[ArthurDent]

@Nex4060: But you're using one of those special HD-floppy-drives Amiga1260 mentioned, right? Not a standard Amiga DF0:-internal drive?

[orange]

I would try some more disks, maybe different brands. It really should work, at least for a while. I have used maybe only once or twice HD disks in DD drives, and there even was no need of covering the hole (IIRC). Only when I put them in A4000s HD FDD, they were unreadable, most likely 'cause of the hole.

If you want more details, do a search on google groups. It was discussed a lot in comp.sys.amiga.hardware

It was something about coercivity, HD floppys needing "stronger field" or similar, cant remember now.

[X-ray]

Make sure you use opaque tape, not clear tape to cover the hole.

[ArthurDent]

Right, thanks again for your suggestions all!

I'll experiment some more with it. Maybe I'll have succes. I don't have a creditcard, so ordering DD-disks online might be a bit troublesome. If it works, only if for a while, using taped-over HD floppies might be a good solution for the time being.

[Brian]

I've found that some DD diskdrives in Amigas (found in 2 of my A1200) actually checks for the HD holes even if they only read DD disks and precent an error when using Hd disks that haven't been taped.

As said HD disks that are forced to work as DD disks are not as reliable but they do work for quite some time... It doesn't bother me much as the ADF's I write to disks are often installed onto HD stright away.