Hi All,
Okay I was running through a bunch of my software checking which disks were still good or not. I was using X-Copy to check the disks and everything was fine. Then I found a disk that had one bad block at 0/0 and thought I could copy everything but omit that block. So I moved the block copy from 0/0 to 0/1. Then I thought I only wanted to skip that block on the up side and not the down side and how would I do that? So I thought about it a bit and clicked around a bit. Then I realized I really did not know how to do it, so I set everything back. Only now when I went to read a disk the up side showed every block bad and the down side every block good. After swapping a couple of disk and getting the same out put. I quit and then rebooted, only now every disk I put in the drive is getting block errors and I am unable to insert any disk in the drive. No matter what I do the drive is throwing errors on all my disks, or just can't read them correctly. Anyone have any idea how I got in this mess or how I can get out of it?

Thanks in advance...

Brad Hansen

Got some to work as cleaning the = with a make-up soft wool stick (sorry don't know the name)

Electrical Spray Cleaner or some medialkohol.

Lots to screw on and off. Could carefully try vacuum cleaning first with hand on the place and a cleaning disk. Could be an error that the head jumped off track. You will get better answer for sure.

Best luck, Change a Chinon or other drive if nothing else helps.

@Punkyclown


Considering that I am suffering mightily for my Amiga this is an incredibly critic
and incoherent reply. Can't even be bothered to identify who you are. I pray
I can get a better answer than this. Something from someone who knows what they
are talking about. I realize that as time goes on it is getting harder and harder to
find folks who know the machine, but geez, why did you even bother...
Brad Hansen

@Punkyclown

If you don´t find answer here, eab.abime.net is more "classic" oriented forum - really worth a try.

AmigaWiki or Amigakit. Can't be that hard nowdays. Screwdriver in hand, small + was it philips in english.

Gotta few in the garage just in case. Now not messing as works in a few.

Keep it clean. Wonder that post as replying ok not mine.

Easy to do if not an Atarist with a thumb at the middle of the hand;) (Joke Really intended;)


Insert disk and check what it does. Hopefully goes ok. (Read/Write sensor, the player and the mentioned = should be clean)

I have a Really Good aftershock repair method if nothing else helps.

A Hammer. Sorry for my harsnesh but sometimes done that and it worked;)

@Punkyclown

Shall I take it you have no external floppy drive to test?

I've seen my fair share of errors and in some cases the drive actually crashed the machine.

If cleaning the heads makes it no better then check the cables behind the floppy drive.

Also do you have a known good Workbench you can insert and cold boot to test? Just to eliminate software conflicts. And confirm it is a hardware level error.

@Hypex

Hi


IS you Amiga a basic one with no expansion? I had big issues with floppy drive which turned out to be a bad PSU.

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Are we talking about misalignment of the top and bottom heads?

Maybe you take a disk which you know is good and try to copy it with x-copy by starting from block 0/0 top and block 0/0 bottom. Would that revert back the disk drive?

Last edited by Nonefornow on 16-Jan-2019 at 08:33 PM.
Last edited by Nonefornow on 16-Jan-2019 at 08:33 PM.

@Punkyclown

I think what PR was trying to say was that the drive probably needs both cleaning and checking the heads.

Cleaning with IPA and cotton buds as well as using an air cannister to blow any residual dust from within the drive.

Opening the drive can require several screwdriver types and many screws as well as disconnecting internal PCBs to get at some parts - so care is required as well as paying attention to how it was all connected up.

The heads are mounted on a spring mechanism which can become loser in time, requiring a little extra weight added to the head. The upper head can also become detached from its mounting where the plastics age and break over the years also leading to head misalignment and errors reading disks.

Jan Beta made a series of videos on his A500 restoration set up - but the 5th part https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8_uzLnrmU went into a lot of work on his failing disk drive and the things he did to finally get it working. It may offer some pointers for you in your disk drive problem.

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@_Steve_

Right on Thanks. My UK is not so good but practising.

Got a HD external very newish. Works great, On/OFF switch for compability like the mem too that never switch when to Amiga is on.

X-Copy idea good to reset. Action Replay MKIII even better, disk copy if no boot from the disks.

Cleaning and the spring usually works. Sometimes the Read/Write sensor.

My recommendation is to click read on/off a disk after vacuuming outside.

Then put in pieces if no go and clean.

Load of small different screwdrivers came gladly from a rental guy left behind and bought.

Torx et. In a different thing a motor was jammed, a small notch and works. In the roof used the hammer in a blower. And works but there is no snow in the Amiga as here. 30cm comming... My back is Backbones broken .

Usually get Earthed (battery or some metal) and be in an accurate feeling, well recommended after a good sleep+food. That would be hoped for the all AmigaFriends and coders-

Using dust covers in the DT over the dd and kb. Towers under desk.

PR

@g01df1sh

No I had a DKB Cobra in there as well. Though that was annoying as the Ferret SCSI I had on it used to crash half the time.

I recall the metal contacts between the floppy and board had some conflict. The floppy kept touching some contact. It might have been earth related but it was strange as it kept crashing. Since it sat there for years without protest.

@_Steve_
WOW,Thanks for all the great advise. I seem to have gotten into this
trouble by using X-Copy. Found a bad sector at 0/0 and tried to correct
it. After that I quit and rebooted, since then all it does is throws errors on
all the disks I insert in it. Tried to format blank disks and I get the
error message "Couldn't format cyclinder 0" So if someone knows how to
just back me out of this error. Thank you so much.
I do have an external drive but it has a similar issue :o(
Brad Hansen