Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Forums
« previous next »
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: Floppy disks  (Read 4880 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Nostalgiac

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Dec 2006
  • Posts: 408
    • Show only replies by Nostalgiac
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2007, 09:08:54 PM »
or as I have done, in an A2000 install a Budha + CF/IDE converter... and stick a 2gb CF card into that.

Bit awkward to swap the CF card, but works fine :-)

Tom UK
Logged
2000/2060/128mb/2320/2gb/C64-3D/Hydra-Aminet on OS 3.9

c128/1541/1750/1351 with Dolphin Dos and eprom burner
 

Offline AmigaMance

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2005
  • Posts: 1278
    • Show only replies by AmigaMance
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #15 on: November 13, 2007, 10:22:01 PM »
Quote

persia wrote:
In a related topic, can I get a card reader to wrk on an Amiga?


 This man is a sarcasm machine.
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32495
Logged
A1200 PPC user.
 

Offline frl9lk

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Feb 2006
  • Posts: 83
    • Show only replies by frl9lk
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #16 on: November 13, 2007, 10:30:09 PM »
Semi related: Is there anything that can reasonably be done to avoid floppies going bad seemingly randomly. I use several different drives, three different machines, and the failure rate is still way high. Is it peculiar to Amigas? (No other system I have ever used has had anywhere near the same problem.) Thanks.
Logged
1000s, 500, 2000HD, 4000, Joyboard
 

Offline AmigaMance

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2005
  • Posts: 1278
    • Show only replies by AmigaMance
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #17 on: November 13, 2007, 11:06:46 PM »
 Keep the disk away from: Magnetic fields, moist, heat, dust, direct sunlight. Also, clean the heads of your drives. (gently)
Logged
A1200 PPC user.
 

Offline HopperJF

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2003
  • Posts: 1531
    • Show only replies by HopperJF
    • http://www.michael-powell.blogspot.com
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2007, 11:25:55 PM »
Quote

marcfrick2112 wrote:
Well, basically yes, you will need to block up the High Density hole on the upper right, but HD disks used as DD this way are said to not be as reliable as actual double density disks....



HD disks aren't as reliable as DD full stop
Logged
Religion is for people who believe in hell.
Spirituality is for people who have been there.
 

Offline da9000

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2005
  • Posts: 922
    • Show only replies by da9000
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2007, 06:13:11 AM »
Quote

HopperJF wrote:
HD disks aren't as reliable as DD full stop


YMMV (like my case) but *technically*, yes, they are not as reliable.

PS. HopperJF, your blog link "no-worky" :-(
Logged
 

Offline weirdami

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jan 2003
  • Posts: 3776
    • Show only replies by weirdami
    • Http://Bindingpolymer.com
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #20 on: November 14, 2007, 06:45:39 AM »
Quote
Also, clean the heads of your drives. (gently)


I let my floppy drive cleaner disks do things their own way. There's only one cleaning mode on those.
Logged
----
Binding Polymer: Keeping you together since 1892.
 

Offline AmigaMance

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2005
  • Posts: 1278
    • Show only replies by AmigaMance
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #21 on: November 14, 2007, 07:21:20 AM »
Quote

weirdami wrote:
Quote
Also, clean the heads of your drives. (gently)


I let my floppy drive cleaner disks do things their own way. There's only one cleaning mode on those.


 Well, yeah. Obviously...
Perhaps he doesn't have a cleaner disk and he wants to open the drive and clean the heads with a cotton pad. I have done it many times. It must be done gently, otherwise you could make things worse.
Logged
A1200 PPC user.
 

Offline CLS2086

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2003
  • Posts: 1456
    • Show only replies by CLS2086
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #22 on: November 14, 2007, 06:06:38 PM »
Clean the long screw and use spray to put oil on it. :rtfm:
Logged
Keep the Faith !
VG 5000/A1000/500/500+/600/2000/CDTV/1200PPC-GREX/1200PPC -ATEO-BV/4060D/CD32/Aone/Peg 1/Peg2 G4/ various funny machines too  :-) http://www.mo5.com/collection/index.php?pseudo=CLS2086
I also repair drives of our old beloved Amiga
 

Offline Zac67

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2004
  • Posts: 2890
    • Show only replies by Zac67
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #23 on: November 14, 2007, 07:02:27 PM »
Compare Wikipedia:Floppy Disk - it's not 100.00% safe to use (previously formatted) HD disks for DD, but it's very safe (>99.9%). I've been mixing them for years (PC/A3k <-> A500) and the error rate in HD/DD disks wasn't noticably higher than with real DD.
Note that the only difference comes from the formatting done to them, the actual media has always been the very same since the early 90's.

I don't trust a floppy disk further than I can spit it anyway - Murphy states that it's the most important disk that dies next.
Logged
 

Offline frl9lk

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Feb 2006
  • Posts: 83
    • Show only replies by frl9lk
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #24 on: November 14, 2007, 07:22:14 PM »
I do have a disk cleaner, which I use with Klean (an old utility that simply spins dfX: for a few seconds). The problem is that disks can go bad in the same sitting. And by bad, I mean unformattable. All my Amigas have had problems this way -- and old Mac, PC or ST disks have stayed basically reliable.  I will open up a drive and try the clean and oil. Thanks.

(I've eBayed my way through a bunch of drives, and would like to find an alternative strategy.)
Logged
1000s, 500, 2000HD, 4000, Joyboard
 

Offline koaftder

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2004
  • Posts: 2116
    • Show only replies by koaftder
    • http://koft.net
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #25 on: November 14, 2007, 07:28:20 PM »
Get a catweasel and use it to backup your stuff to the pc, and use the cheap HD floppies but treat them as disposable.
Logged
 

Offline frl9lk

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Feb 2006
  • Posts: 83
    • Show only replies by frl9lk
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #26 on: November 14, 2007, 07:39:40 PM »
I don't use floppies to backup. I have redundant HDs, CDRW, zips(speaking of flakey) and SyQuest. But it's playing Russian Roulette to try to read/install legacy software.
Logged
1000s, 500, 2000HD, 4000, Joyboard
 

Offline amiga-madTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Nov 2007
  • Posts: 5
    • Show only replies by amiga-mad
    • http://www.tlbusiness.net
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #27 on: November 16, 2007, 11:19:13 AM »
You have all been lots of help guys.

I have sourced some new DD disks which i never knew that i could still buy.

Thanks soooo much.

Logged
 

Offline Paradox

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Join Date: Dec 2006
  • Posts: 163
    • Show only replies by Paradox
    • http://www.alien-tek.com
Re: Floppy disks
« Reply #28 from previous page: November 16, 2007, 11:32:40 AM »
Floppy disks are unreliable no matter which ones you use.

And same to are the floppy drives.

Sometimes you think your floppies have errors but its your drive messing up for a while.

I use PC floppies on my Amiga all the time with no problem
, you just have to format them.

I bite a piece of paper and chew it up then splodge it inside the notch on the HD floppy.

Regards
Logged
 
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up
« previous next »