Weird floppy drive issue.

[maaarcooose]

So I recently modded a PC floppy drive for my A1200 and all seemed to be working fine but there seems to be an issue with workbench.

Any disk that is not formatted will show up as such in WB and then I can format it. But as soon as I take it out and then replace, it shows as not formatted again.
If I format and try to write files to it, I get a write error on disk block 880.

Now here’s the weird bit, if I copy a disk in XCopy, it works perfectly and if I format in XCopy it shows up in WB fine as an empty disk. I still can’t write to it in WB and as soon as I do, the disk seems to corrupt and then on reload the disk shows unformatted again.

I’m gonna guess that there’s something odd about this floppy drive that WB doesn’t like.

Any suggestions of what to try next? I’m pretty close to just modifying another floppy drive to see if it fails as well.

!m!

[solarmon]

What motherboard revision and Kickstart do you have. When you use Workbench - how do you boot it and what version do you use?

Is the A1200 and Escom one?

If you use a normal Amiga drive does it have the same issue?

I would recommend to use Amiga Test Kit to test the suspect drive, and to also do other health checks on the A1200 too - especially memory and CIA checks.

[maaarcooose]

So in answer to your questions:

It’s an A1200 1D.1.
Kickstart is 3.0 39.106
I generally boot from an internal hard disk but I have tried a CF card that I just replaced and a CF card that I purchased with the Amiga Forever version on.
I’ve tried with classic workbench install 3.1 that I prepared myself, the 3.1 Amiga Forever version and also I’ve tried 3.1 booted from floppy. All do the same.

I do not think this is an Escom A1200, how would I know?

I replaced the Amiga drive I had as it was giving lots and lots of disk errors. Wouldn’t even read disks correctly. With the PC one I at least seem to be able to read anything that I haven’t written.
I’ll get the old one out again and see if I can make any disks work.

I shall try the test kit.

In regards to the rest of the system I am running a PCMCIA card with a CF card in for transferring files between my pc and Amiga, and when I use transdisk to write an adf it seems to always fail at track 40 a few times and then continue, but the disk is still unreadable.

I’ll try my old floppy drive but that was a bit of a dead loss.

!m!

[solarmon]

A1200 Escom models has a mod to the internal disk drive connector. If you want to use Amiga disk drives (or modded PC drives) then the mod needs to be undone.

What is the make/model of the PC drive you modded

I see that you are in no the UK. I can have a look at your original floppy drive if you want. PM me if you are interested.

[maaarcooose]

I modified a Sony MPF920-E.
when I did the mod, one of the tracks on the board did raise a little but I repaired it as far as I could tell and when it read the disk I assumed all okay.
I would blame the drive but with it working in XCopy that seems unlikely.

I am in the UK and may well take you up on you looking at it.

This may sound like a stupid question, but could I replace the heads from a working PC drive into the broken Amiga one?

[maaarcooose]

What is the mod done to the escom connector and how can I check.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by maaarcooose

What is the mod done to the escom connector and how can I check.

Just search Google for "amiga escom floppy mod'

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by maaarcooose

This may sound like a stupid question, but could I replace the heads from a working PC drive into the broken Amiga one?

You'll get in to all sorts of alignment issues - so avoid! plus I don't think it will be physically compatible.

[maaarcooose]

Just checked and no wire on the floppy drive connector so I’m gonna suspect not and Escom 1200.

!m!

[maaarcooose]

So I decided to just modify a different drive, a Panasonic JU-256A428P.

It all works perfectly, so I can only assume I did something wrong with the Sony drive.

!m!