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Author Topic: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?  (Read 5153 times)

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Offline davidao25Topic starter

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Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« on: February 18, 2011, 09:01:00 PM »
Hello

I have a Amiga 500 and about 50 games and programs stored in the loft for the 20 years or so. Now I want to sell the games on eBay but avoiding buyer's disappointment and mine if they get a bad disk. So I though... there must be a program that I can load in the Amiga floppy drive and check the disks one by one???? I don't have HDD and want to avoid using Amiga Explorer with a PC.
Hope you guys can shed some light!!

Thanks in advance.
David
 

Offline brianb

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2011, 09:48:19 PM »
I would just try them out on the Amiga 500, if they load up and play you're good to go.  Even if you did scan them for errors, who is to say they wouldn't get errors 5 minutes later.  Maybe they work on your floppy drive but not on another person's 20 year old drive.  The disks are over 20 years old, anyone bidding on them on eBay should be aware of this.   Just put a warning in your listing something along the lines "Due to the age of these disks seller cannot make any guarantees on their condition."  Or if you're a really super-nice ebay seller you can offer a return policy if they contact you in X days.  (but i wouldn't)
 

Offline davidao25Topic starter

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2011, 09:59:50 PM »
"load up and play you're good to go".
If is was so simple like that I wouldn't be here asking for help. Loading a game won't tell if disk is bad because you can still get a disk error when loading the last level of the game. And that is really annoying... :madashell:  people could come here and make me eat the disk.:hammer:
 

Offline lsmart

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2011, 10:15:52 PM »
Back in the day I always used TurboBackup or XCopy to make a backup of the disk. If the backup was verified this was a good indicator for a good original disk as well. This however will not work with copy protected disks unless you have a second drive and the XCopy hardware.
 

Offline Franko

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2011, 10:19:19 PM »
@ davidao25

Right charmer you aint ya... :) (kinda like that though... ;))

Anyway you don't have much of an option if it's original disks your selling, most Amiga games used custom loaders (ie: not DOS) and so even with something like X-Copy they're going to show up as being full of errors... :(

You could use X-Copy to easily check standard Amiga DOS disks, but when it come to most original Amiga game disks, your  just gonna have to boot them up one by one and play all the way to the end if you really want to check them... :)
 

Offline Pete_Noir

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2011, 11:37:46 PM »
Soak them overnight in warm water and Fairy washing-up liquid. Works like a charm.
 

Offline davidao25Topic starter

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2011, 12:04:36 AM »
Quote from: Franko;616479
@ davidao25

Right charmer you aint ya... :) (kinda like that though... ;))

Anyway you don't have much of an option if it's original disks your selling, most Amiga games used custom loaders (ie: not DOS) and so even with something like X-Copy they're going to show up as being full of errors... :(

You could use X-Copy to easily check standard Amiga DOS disks, but when it come to most original Amiga game disks, your  just gonna have to boot them up one by one and play all the way to the end if you really want to check them... :)

Thanks Franko. Unfortunately you have the answer that I didn't want to read... Case closed.
 

Offline davidao25Topic starter

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2011, 12:07:30 AM »
Quote from: Pete_Noir;616484
Soak them overnight in warm water and Fairy washing-up liquid. Works like a charm.
... and then strait to the oven to dry. Or do you think a microwave is better? :idea:
 

Offline Ral-Clan

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2011, 12:17:16 AM »
Quote from: davidao25;616491
... and then strait to the oven to dry. Or do you think a microwave is better? :idea:


Not as far fetched as you think!  It works with magnetic audio tape at least!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_baking
Music I've made using Amigas and other retro-instruments: http://theovoids.bandcamp.com
 

Offline davidao25Topic starter

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2011, 12:25:49 AM »
Quote from: ral-clan;616495
Not as far fetched as you think!  It works with magnetic audio tape at least!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_baking

Great tip ral-clan. I'm not baking my disks but surely I will try this method if I need to recover unrecoverable data from magnetic media.
 

Offline lsmart

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2011, 07:13:40 AM »
Quote from: Franko;616479
Anyway you don't have much of an option if it's original disks your selling, most Amiga games used custom loaders (ie: not DOS) and so even with something like X-Copy they're going to show up as being full of errors... :(

I disagree. Bad blocks tend to show up when using verify, because usually one of them is on the edge beween two values and is read differently when read again. Consequently every disk you can store as an ADF can be checked by this method with nearly any backup program with verify. You improve the odds of discovering errors by copying twice or thrice.

The quesrion is not whether they are (Amiga) DOS formatted, but whether they obey to the standard Amiga track/sector layout, which is true for over 90 percent of my disks, then again I have only very few games and they are all pre 1993.

XCopy is only better in so far, as it will read Disks containing long tracks, etc. The long tracks will be unchecked, but the rest will be fine.
 

Offline AmiDude

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2011, 11:24:46 AM »
@davidao25

I use DCopy3.1 to verify and check disks. It has more options than XCopy and is more professional.
Read the manual carefully. Download: DCopy3.1
 

Offline Digiman

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2011, 02:51:27 PM »
Right, well first thing is if they have grown even a microscopic layer of mould/gunk on the disk surface during their stay in the loft then the 3rd or 4th disk you attempt to load and won't boot will screw the drive heads.

Open the metal sleeve and inspect the drive surface carefully and make sure it is 'clean' and not dull looking.
 

Offline bloodline

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #13 on: February 19, 2011, 06:30:28 PM »
Diskdoctor... Nah I'm just joking you don't want to use Diskdoctor... REALLY DON'T USE DISKDOCTOR!!!!!! please don't use diskdoctor!!! :-(

Offline golem

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Re: Is there a way the check the integrity of the Amiga 500 disks?
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2011, 06:54:09 PM »
Yeah if theres one sure fire way to truly feck up your disks...Diskdoctors da man
                                                             
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