Date   : Mon, 27 Mar 2006 22:18:33 +0100
From   : "Ian Wolstenholme" <BBCMailingList@...>
Subject: Re: Faulty Drive

I'm not having much luck today.  I tried another drive which
formatted & verified & saved OK for a while and then suddenly I
get Disc write protected after every subsequent write attempt.
So it looks like the sensor has gone!

Best wishes,


Ian

----- Original Message -----
From: David Hunt
To:  "'Ian Wolstenholme'" <BBCMailingList@...>,<bbc-micro@...>
Sent:  Mon, 27 Mar 2006 18:13:54 +0100
Subject: RE: [BBC-Micro] Faulty Drive

> Can anybody help me with a faulty floppy drive?
> 
> It's a Cumana single 40/80T 5.25" floppy drive which isn't working
> properly.  In DFS, I can verify and read the contents of Drive 0
> but any attempt at formatting seems to work for a few tracks but then
> ends in Disc error 18.  If I try to write to the disc by saving or
> changing
> file access, the command is accepted but nothing actually gets written
> as the catalogue is the same as before.
> 
> Using drive 2 works OK with formatting and reading and writing so I
> guess the problem is with the drive head for the top surface?
> 
> By the way - does DFS update the disc catalogue first and then write
> data onto the disc when Saving?  If I save something, it will move the
> drive head along the disc surface but it doesn't come back to update
> the catalogue at the beginning.

IIRC the underside of the disc is 0 and the top is 2. Probably dirty heads.

Dave ;)