Couldnt format cylinder 0

[videofx]

I have installed an HD floppy drive (FB-374A, Amiga HD floppy) in my 4000T and went and bought a brand new box of HD floppies preformatted as 1.44 PC disks.

I can format an 800K floppy no problem and is recognized as an 800K floppy. Put in an HD floppy and is recognized as a 1.76MB floppy, click format, then the DF0: icon on the desktop changes to busy. Then after a few seconds I get the error "COULDNT FORMAT CYLINDER 0"

I have tried 5 different disks with the same results.

Anyone know whats wrong?

Thanks!

[bbond007]

I have installed an HD floppy drive (FB-374A, Amiga HD floppy) in my 4000T and went and bought a brand new box of HD floppies preformatted as 1.44 PC disks.

I can format an 800K floppy no problem and is recognized as an 800K floppy. Put in an HD floppy and is recognized as a 1.76MB floppy, click format, then the DF0: icon on the desktop changes to busy. Then after a few seconds I get the error "COULDNT FORMAT CYLINDER 0"

I have tried 5 different disks with the same results.

Anyone know whats wrong?

Thanks!

I used to have the same problem but I quit using floppy disks. whdload, and now HXC floppy.

You may need to cover the notch so the disk appears to be a 800K.

I also used to have that track 0 issue with my A1200 when trying to format pre-formated PC 1.44 formatted floppies.

What I used to do was first write a DMS(game/demo/etc.) to the disk then for some reason I was able to reformat it afterwards without getting the cyl 0 error.

I think it also might help if you had a magnetic bulk eraser.

[ChaosLord]

@bbond007

I hereby award you an Amiga.org Floppy Disk Science Achievement Award for 2013, March 09.

[bbond007]

@bbond007

I hereby award you an Amiga.org Floppy Disk Science Achievement Award for 2013, March 09.

Commodore floppy drives are obviously powered by voodoo side-effect, so any given advice may or may not work Its a little like giving advice on curing the hiccups...

Like I was also able to format a new 1.44 to 720 on my PC then somehow it would magically work as an 880K on my A1200 without thetting the cyl 0 error.

[mdivancic]

Will it format disk as 1.44mb PC floppy?

[bbond007]

Will it format disk as 1.44mb PC floppy?

On the Amiga (with HD floppy) the 1.44 MB floppy should format to 1.76 MB unless its got some damaged areas.

[mdivancic]

On the Amiga (with HD floppy) the 1.44 MB floppy should format to 1.76 MB unless its got some damaged areas.

Let me restate my comment, can you format the floppy with CrossDOS?

[AppleIIGuy]

Formatting a HD 3.5 Floppy drive as 800k will at some point in the future cause problems

HD disks use a more powerful magnetic field to write a track. So formatting a floppy might be problematic.

720k Type Drives use a coercivity of  600 Osterds
1440k use 720

so if you write on media that expects a write strength of 720 but its only getting 600.

Same if you try to fool a floppy drive into formatting a DSDD as DSHD except the media get over magnetized and can partially overwrite neighboring tracks

[AmigaClassicRule]

Is that why the color of magnetic disk from the insight of DSDD is lighter than that of the DSHD? Why do I find the concept you mentioned AppleIIGuy not only fascinating, but hot?? It is like trying to burn a DVD into a CD-ROM and vice versa, right?

[robo-ant]

I used to have this problem with some brands of pre-formatted disks (PC format).

My solution was to use a bulk eraser that was originally used for reel-to-reel and cassette tapes.  The one I had was Realistic brand (Radio Shack).  I could always format after using that.

(I recall also that some viruses would cause similar symptoms but you then also wouldn't be able to format 880K disks.)