Formatting Floppies

I was just wondering what is the best way to go about using HD floppies on my A500? Generally just formatting them in CLI seems to work fine but I've been trying to transfer ADF files via Amiga Explorer and I've been getting error messages and truncated transfers... could this be to do with using the wrong kind of disk/formatting?

[Unknown_K]

You need DD disks on an A500. Amiga explorer will dump ADF's directly to a non-formatted DD disk in about 3-4 minutes over a serial transfer cable.

[Amiga1992]

Cover the extra hole with some tape, see if it works. However I wouldn't recommend the use of HD disks, the data in them gets wiped easily and soonish.

[Tim Janssen]

Some years ago I made a backup of some games on HD-discs. On my real Amiga I first formatted the HD-floppies in X-copy 6, then I copied the games.
When I rebooted the Amiga the games booted fine from the HD-discs. No tapes were used to cover the holes.

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Tim Janssen

Some years ago I made a backup of some games on HD-discs. On my real Amiga I first formatted the HD-floppies in X-copy 6, then I copied the games.
When I rebooted the Amiga the games booted fine from the HD-discs. No tapes were used to cover the holes.

It depends on whether the disk drive knows about the second hole or not. If it checks the HD hole, it will not accept HD disks and you have to cover the hole in order to use them. If the drive does not care about the hole, the disks will work without coverage.

*BUT* in any case using HD disks in DD drives is not reliable. The magnetism on HD disks is different than on DD disks and DD drives are not strong or not exact enough to magnetise HD disks correctly. So use HD disks for temporary files only, but not for storing important data.

Thanks guys, that clears up a lot. I had a feeling the HD were not reliable alright. Cheers once again!