Gotek Disk Validating Read / Write Errors

[gurth]

My Gotek seems to randomly give me disk validating errors or read / write errors. It will be fine on first boot but after a little while disk images which worked 30 seconds previously fail and refuse to load.

I've tried different USB sticks and the issue remains, I'm wondering if its the CDTV? Could a chip be failing?

[idrougge]

Could just as well be your Gotek. Considering that Goteks are cheap, try a replacement. Or, if you have a real floppy, try that.

[gurth]

That's sad. My floppies are dying at an alarming rate and I think the external drives I have cause just the same issues with reading disks. I was hoping Gotek would be my saviour.

[gurth]

I'm using one of these, could it be this that is causing the issues

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gotek-Exte...AAAOSwL7VWrzQx

I've some people creating their own cable to connect to the Amiga externally and they don't need a PCB.

[Superman]

Check your ADF files for viruses. It only takes one with a virus on to spread it each time you change slots to another file. They eventually destroy the bootblocks and fail to load.

[gurth]

interesting. I'll do that thanks!

[demolition]

If real drives show exactly the same issues, then perhaps it is the CDTV which is at fault?

[gurth]

The problem I have with floppies is they rarely work on my A500 (internal and external drives) or my A1200 internal. They are 20+ years old so I can forgive them.

If my CDTV is at fault which chip could it be? I read it's not CIAs.

[supaduper]

Originally Posted by gurth

The problem I have with floppies is they rarely work on my A500 (internal and external drives) or my A1200 internal. They are 20+ years old so I can forgive them.

If my CDTV is at fault which chip could it be? I read it's not CIAs.

It is one of the CIA chips, odd and even that you are talking about cant remember which one deals with the Floppy signals, anyway I stupidly blew one by putting the cable in the port while the CDTV was on! and yes I blew the chip duh.
Put a spare one in off a another board and it cured it.

I have used a gotek with my CDTV and had corruption issues with the selector adf, and found it was one of the images I was loading was screwing it up, swapped it for another image and that sorted that.
Also I use a cable from guy who makes them in Greece and it works great, he sells them on ebay and Amibay I think. I found a link here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/External-A...MAAOSwtUtXA4N6

[gurth]

Okay sat down this evening. I have inserted the 2 USB sticks I've been using with my Gotek in my MacBook and booted from the ADFs in FS-UAE. All worked fine in any order of loading, change disk, soft reset, load etc.

The only ADF which fails is the SELECTOR.ADF image, error validating 880 message but I can accept that as I bet it's expecting to be wrapped in a Gotek firmware. I download the same ADF from the cortex website fresh and had the same response.

^ I think I can rule out a virus from these tests.

Interestingly plugging the Gotek + my eBay adapter in on my A1200 as an external drive refuses to work. Appears to try but then boots from hard drive and shows me a DF1:NDOS icon on the desktop. Makes me wonder if it's my adapter and it's operating on the edge of acceptable tolerances. I wasn't too sure if I needed to switch the jumper from S0 to S1 so I tried both and still no luck.

Next obvious step is to remove the eBay adapter, open my A1200 and plug the Gotek in as my internal drive.

[gurth]

Tonight I have tested the Gotek as an internal drive on my A1200.

With the Gotek set to 000 / SELECTOR.ADF it would attempt to boot from the floppy but would either give up and load from the hard drive or give me a NDOS disk error. Oddly if I swapped the position to 001 (Speedball2), reset the Amiga, it would boot fine and I could play the game. So it seems it can work.

On one occasion while I was in Workbench after booting from my hard drive the Gotek showed as 2 x NDOS disks (DF0 and DF1 - I kid you not see attached image!). After a few more attempts it reverted back to a single DF0 NDOS. The Gotek was left with a jumper on S0, if I changed it to S1 it didn't want to know. I tried the Gotek + my eBay adapter as an external DF1 but still no joy.

Which has got me thinking. The SELECTOR.ADF image must save some state somewhere in itself as it keeps a record of which ADFs on the USB stick are mapped against which position. Between the 2 USB sticks I have working it knows 1 has USB has 4 games as it only allows me to select between 000-005 and the other stick has 1 game and hence only allows a range of 000-001.

I wonder during that save some other state is held telling the Gotek `hey if anyone asks you're Speedball2 in DF0` and with me swapping between CDTV (as DF0) and A1200 (DF1 at the weekend) its got out of whack.

I'm clutching at straws - I do know that the DF0 NDOS while attempting to load SELECTOR.ADF on my A1200 was solved by immediately unplugging the Gotek and attaching it to the CDTV and switching it on. The NDOS image which failed to load 10 seconds previously worked and booted the SELECTOR.ADF fine.

What I might do is format the USB stick and start from scratch on the A1200 as an internal drive and see if it works there from a clean slate.

The good news is does seem to work a little more constantly on the CDTV at the mo.