glewis@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Glenn Mansfield Lewis) (07/16/87)
[]
In the last month, about five of my DS 3.5" floppy disks have experienced
"Hard sector errors" that AmigaDOS tells me to fix with DiskDoctor. After
DiskDoctor is finished with it, and I copy the remaining files to another
disk, the disk *can not* be initialized because of the hard sector error.
How can I fix this disk so that I can re-use it? Should I find a strong
magnetic field to scramble it, or something?
Thanks for your help. You can send your reply to:
glewis@cit-vax.caltech.edu
-- Glenn Lewiscmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (07/16/87)
In article <3249@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> (Glenn M. Lewis) writes: > How can I fix this disk so that I can re-use it? Should I find a strong >magnetic field to scramble it, or something? > -- Glenn Lewis First, make sure you aren't using Single Sided disks, every now and then there will be a physical defect in the media on the 'bottom' and that can cause hard failures, as can flaking if the oxide. If they are regular DS/DD disks then the easiest way to 'scramble' them is with a bulk eraser. You can get them at Radio Shack but professional recording supplies dealers have better ones. Put your disk(s) under the bulk eraser, switch it on, and _slowly_ pull it away from the disk(s) while moving in larger and larger circles. Now do it again to be sure. Voila completely unformatted disks. Be vary careful not to do this near any other magnetic media. (I go out into the garage). You can also degauss TV's this way too. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
mph@rover.UUCP (Mark Huth) (07/17/87)
In my experience, a Workbench disk is only good for a couple of months before it is worn out. I hope that the problem is the old, washing machine style of drive. My drive 0 eats a disk a month, and the errors are nearly always permanent. Opening the shutter and examining the disk shows a neat ditch worn into the surface of the medium. I hope that when I get money for a change, that this problem will be cured. Until then, I keep several kickstarts and workbenches on hand. The only real cure is a hard disk. Makes an incredible difference. I went from hating the machine to really liking it when I got my hard drive to work. In fact, I now loathe going to work on #%$^Un*x which is the best that Motorola has to offer. Oh well, they pay better than the Amiga business. Mark Huth seismo!noao!mcdsun!rover!mph
hah@mipon3.intel.com (Hans Hansen) (07/18/87)
In article <3249@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> glewis@cit-vax.UUCP (Glenn M. Lewis) writes: >[] > > In the last month, about five of my DS 3.5" floppy disks have experienced >"Hard sector errors" that AmigaDOS tells me to fix with DiskDoctor. After >DiskDoctor is finished with it, and I copy the remaining files to another >disk, the disk *can not* be initialized because of the hard sector error. > How can I fix this disk so that I can re-use it? Should I find a strong >magnetic field to scramble it, or something? > Thanks for your help. You can send your reply to: >glewis@cit-vax.caltech.edu > > -- Glenn Lewis Unless you are using Single-Sided disks you are experencing a disk alignment problem -or- a dirty head. If you are using SS disks there is no real hope of correcting the problem until you find a friend with an Atari ST who may be willing to buy them from you. If you are using DS disks then you should take your Amy to the nearest repair center and have the head cleaned and the alignment checked. Hans