Advice on floppy disks please!

Mister-Kyle · 18 April 2017, 22:34

Hi all,

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a silly question but I am just getting back into the Amiga and need some advice on floppy disks. Although I have pretty much all the games I want installed on a CF card I still need to get hold of some floppy disks for the purposes of save games and writing a few ADFs back on to with the Amiga and ADF2disk (or one of those programs).

I have been reading that using 1.44meg HD floppies will lead to corruption evenutally if I format them for the Amiga but notice that standard Amiga floppies claim to only be 720kb rather than the 880kbs I seem to remember.

So where would you buy floppy disks if you needed some?

Thanks!

ajk · 18 April 2017, 22:45

Double density floppies have a raw capacity of 1MB. The usable capacity once formatted then depends on the file system, for DOS/Windows it's 720kB and for the Amiga 880kB. Equivalently for high density floppies it's 2MB raw, 1.44MB DOS and 1.76MB Amiga.

New double density floppies are getting hard to come by. You can easily find old, used ones on eBay or just by asking around on any Amiga forum such as this one. You can also use high density floppies, they work well enough for at least a while, even though they aren't really intended for double density drives (different kind of magnetic material).

Mister-Kyle · 18 April 2017, 23:13

Thank you ajk

That clears up my query about the storage capacity nicely - I couldn't find that DDs had a potential of up to 1meg anywhere so that is really helpful.

Now to try and find some decent floppies

Nobby_UK · 20 April 2017, 01:27

If you are ever passing through Liverpool
I have a Box of 18 you can have.

Akira · 20 April 2017, 03:18

Don't even bother trying to make HD floppies work, they will be a headache down the road.
Recycled 2SDD floppies will work much better on an Amiga than new HD floppies.

Mister-Kyle · 20 April 2017, 15:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

If you are ever passing through Liverpool
I have a Box of 18 you can have.

Thanks man, seems unlikely I will be but really appreciate the offer

Mister-Kyle · 20 April 2017, 15:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

Don't even bother trying to make HD floppies work, they will be a headache down the road.
Recycled 2SDD floppies will work much better on an Amiga than new HD floppies.

Thanks Akira - definitely going to stick to DDs especially as my save game info will be on there and i don't fancy losing 12+ seasons of SWOS!

Glen M · 11 May 2017, 16:07

Keep an eye on ebay and gumtree. I recently got a box of 120 disks along with a nice external floppy drive for £25. All the disks so far still work fine compared to my own disk that have all but died. I think storage is the key to be honest. My disks all ended up in my parents roof space and with years of cold and damp they have literally grown mold.

Another option is to get yourself a gotek drive and a usb pen. That can hold 999 floppies and its just a buttons press to swap disks. I do find though that over 10 floppies and I need to start writing down what each number corresponds to lol (part of the joy of being an aging amiga owner, its memory is fine, mine not so much).
I actually took the floppy out my newly acquired external drive and put that in the 1200. Then took my gotek and put that in the external enclosure. Just makes life so much easier!

McTrinsic · 12 May 2017, 18:42

I perfer the original - a HxC

- over the Gotek, that is.

paul1981 · 13 May 2017, 12:21

Does your Amiga have a modified HD drive or is it a real DD drive? I know that the one in my A1200 is a modified HD drive (Panasonic) so I'll bet the HD disks will work better in those than the true DD drives. I know I've never had issues over the years with HD disks in this drive (besides having to put a piece of tape over the hole of course to make them work as DD).

Also, don't forget diskspare device on the amiga which you can download from aminet. This allows you to format DD disks to 984 K and HD disks to 1968 K (a true amiga HD drive required to format at 1968 K).

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/Diskspr3

idrougge · 14 May 2017, 03:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by paul1981

Does your Amiga have a modified HD drive or is it a real DD drive? I know that the one in my A1200 is a modified HD drive (Panasonic) so I'll bet the HD disks will work better in those than the true DD drives.

I doubt that.

lost_lemming · 14 May 2017, 19:12

companies should just start making them again. fools for stopping!

18 April 2017, 22:34	#1
Mister-Kyle Amigacionado! Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Alford, England Posts: 18	Advice on floppy disks please! Hi all, Sorry if this seems like a bit of a silly question but I am just getting back into the Amiga and need some advice on floppy disks. Although I have pretty much all the games I want installed on a CF card I still need to get hold of some floppy disks for the purposes of save games and writing a few ADFs back on to with the Amiga and ADF2disk (or one of those programs). I have been reading that using 1.44meg HD floppies will lead to corruption evenutally if I format them for the Amiga but notice that standard Amiga floppies claim to only be 720kb rather than the 880kbs I seem to remember. So where would you buy floppy disks if you needed some? Thanks!

18 April 2017, 23:13	#3
Mister-Kyle Amigacionado! Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Alford, England Posts: 18	Thanks! Thank you ajk That clears up my query about the storage capacity nicely - I couldn't find that DDs had a potential of up to 1meg anywhere so that is really helpful. Now to try and find some decent floppies

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18 April 2017, 22:45	#2
ajk Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 1,055	Double density floppies have a raw capacity of 1MB. The usable capacity once formatted then depends on the file system, for DOS/Windows it's 720kB and for the Amiga 880kB. Equivalently for high density floppies it's 2MB raw, 1.44MB DOS and 1.76MB Amiga. New double density floppies are getting hard to come by. You can easily find old, used ones on eBay or just by asking around on any Amiga forum such as this one. You can also use high density floppies, they work well enough for at least a while, even though they aren't really intended for double density drives (different kind of magnetic material).

20 April 2017, 01:27	#4
Nobby_UK Registered User Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Liverpool Posts: 879	If you are ever passing through Liverpool I have a Box of 18 you can have.

20 April 2017, 03:18	#5
Akira Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: New York Posts: 19,045	Don't even bother trying to make HD floppies work, they will be a headache down the road. Recycled 2SDD floppies will work much better on an Amiga than new HD floppies.

11 May 2017, 16:07	#8
Glen M Registered User Join Date: May 2017 Location: Belfast Posts: 96	Keep an eye on ebay and gumtree. I recently got a box of 120 disks along with a nice external floppy drive for £25. All the disks so far still work fine compared to my own disk that have all but died. I think storage is the key to be honest. My disks all ended up in my parents roof space and with years of cold and damp they have literally grown mold. Another option is to get yourself a gotek drive and a usb pen. That can hold 999 floppies and its just a buttons press to swap disks. I do find though that over 10 floppies and I need to start writing down what each number corresponds to lol (part of the joy of being an aging amiga owner, its memory is fine, mine not so much). I actually took the floppy out my newly acquired external drive and put that in the 1200. Then took my gotek and put that in the external enclosure. Just makes life so much easier!

12 May 2017, 18:42	#9
McTrinsic Registered User Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Germany Posts: 350	I perfer the original - a HxC - over the Gotek, that is.

13 May 2017, 12:21	#10
paul1981 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: England Posts: 120	Does your Amiga have a modified HD drive or is it a real DD drive? I know that the one in my A1200 is a modified HD drive (Panasonic) so I'll bet the HD disks will work better in those than the true DD drives. I know I've never had issues over the years with HD disks in this drive (besides having to put a piece of tape over the hole of course to make them work as DD). Also, don't forget diskspare device on the amiga which you can download from aminet. This allows you to format DD disks to 984 K and HD disks to 1968 K (a true amiga HD drive required to format at 1968 K). http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/Diskspr3

14 May 2017, 19:12	#12
lost_lemming Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Birmingham Age: 32 Posts: 340	companies should just start making them again. fools for stopping!

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