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DD/DS Floppy disks!

JACK98JACK98
edited August 2010 in Chit chat
Another problem facing this day and age,dd/ds disks are getting scarce,anyone know a place in uk/europe that sells them?,i aware of the sellotape over the HD hole trick,but its not always successful,im aware to try ebay,but its a lucky dip as some disks do be covered in crap when buy them.
Post edited by JACK98 on

Comments

  • spiderspider
    edited August 2010
    I had it explained to me ages ago why HD (pc) discs do not work (or last long) using DD although I cannot really remember. I do find (if you can find one) using an older (I use a butchered up Amiga external floppy) drive designed for DD its quite good, although I do have a couple of modified normal 3.5 drives too.

    I purchased about 20 new DSDD 3.5 discs about 18 months ago from Ebay, they are all (with the exception of one) still good, and they do get a fair bit of use.

    It's probably best to just grab say 10 from a decent seller ( ? ) and see how you get on with them really.

    I can't find the details now of who it was unfortunately. They were not expensive from what I recall though.

    Bear in mind this is for my Acorn stuff, as I've not got to disc stage with my speccy stuff yet but the principles are just the same obviously :)
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  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    spider wrote: »
    I had it explained to me ages ago why HD (pc) discs do not work (or last long) using DD although I cannot really remember.

    Its supposed to be do to magnetic coating layer/detail that it gets at the factory that outweighs the DD formatting on the computer.
  • guesserguesser
    edited August 2010
    the strength of the magnetic field used to write the data is different for HD disks. The magnetic coating of the disk is a different material, it's sort of like the different kinds of cassette tape
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  • beanzbeanz
    edited August 2010
    HD disks work fine....I think the problem is they are just not a reliable long term.

    I've been using them in my Amiga's for 2-3yrs now with no problems at all (formatted as DD)....I was just formatting some too for use with the QL last night and backing up some micro drives that were still functioning ..no problems.

    I've got over 300 HD disks with Amiga stuff on I mass produced about 2yrs ago...yet to come across one that no longer works.
  • beanzbeanz
    edited August 2010
    btw...what's this sellotape over the hole thing? I've not had to do that using any of mine.
  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    Its to fool the sensor on pc drive to format it as DD disk,the amiga would not be able to see it if was formatted as 1.44mb disk.
  • beanzbeanz
    edited August 2010
    Ah ok, I think I formatted mine in the Amiga rather than PC....I think it sees it but not as a formatted disk..I don't recall it being a problem as I said...got 300 or so of em I transfered ADF's too and did nowt special to them.


    The Drive I am using on the QL is only 720k I think too and they format fine (and I used 1.44 disks with content on them).
  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    Some people like yourself appeared to have luck formatting HD disks,personally myself i done it before and had the dreaded read errors days later.
  • Dr BEEPDr BEEP
    edited August 2010
    On the job we still have loads of disks (DD).
    I could ask how much and what they do with them?
  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    The humble floppy still sells about million a year,bbc asked the public what use do they have for them,they wrote back -

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8651750.stm
  • RickardRickard
    edited August 2010
    JACK98 wrote: »
    Its to fool the sensor on pc drive to format it as DD disk,the amiga would not be able to see it if was formatted as 1.44mb disk.

    Do you really have to cover it with tape, is it not possible to tell the format program to format it to a smaller size?

    Perhaps: format A: /F:720

    Not tested of course! :smile:

    I remember I used to buy DD disks to my early PC and drill holes through them to "make" them 1.44 MB.. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not!
  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    That might work,i never tried it that way!,ironic thing about it all,you can get the catweasel amiga controller which you could use HD disks,must look into buying it

    http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=567
  • RickardRickard
    edited August 2010
    JACK98 wrote: »
    That might work,i never tried it that way!

    Try it and tell if it did work!
  • JACK98JACK98
    edited August 2010
    info here *too lazy to dig out pc usb powered disk drive

    http://www.computing.net/answers/dos/720k-format-on-hd-disk/5593.html
  • zxbrunozxbruno
    edited August 2010
    I can't believe no one mentioned Rich Mellor yet. Last time I checked he still had floppy disks for sale.
  • rwaprwap
    edited August 2010
    I am now very low on DSDD floppy disks - about 30 left unused, unbranded ones and not in sealed packets.

    A lot of industry buy these from me to keep all sorts of machines going, - latest one was an embroidery machine.
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