A1010 Reading disc name but not contents, do i have a virus?

[Arkanoid_376970]

Hey again all

I was testing some discs i got with my A500 using my 1010 as drive 1. Suddenly, i went from reading discs to getting read/write errors on the 1010. D0 in the A500 works fine, and known working discs give read/write errors although the disc titles are still displayed (for instance, D-paint displays "D-PAINT1.4" in the error messages and on Workbench. I cleaned the WR heads with a Q-tip and isopropyl alcohol and same result. Do i have a virus on my external 1010? Sorry about this, im a total Amiga noob and basically know nothing about the whole amiga virus deal.

Thanks

Ark
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could not agree more that 1+1=2

[desiv]

[Arkanoid_376970]

Thanks ill continue cleaning the drive up and will keep trying until it work or i know its stuffed
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could not agree more that 1+1=2

[Arkanoid_376970]

Ok, its all back together and im still getting the same thing... it wont validate the disc and when i click on the icon of the disc in WB1.3 i get 'volume has read/write error'

Ark
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could not agree more that 1+1=2

[Thrashie]

my guess would be that the drive is misaligned or just faulty

back in the day i knew a guy that had smacked his amiga one too many times (a demo programmer that got a bit frustrated when things didnt go as planned)
he could read and write his own floppies without trouble.. but they would not always be compatible with other amigas.

you could try format a disk on it and fill it with files.. if that also gives errors its probably just faulty drive.
if its misalligned you might be able to fix it.. not sure about that tho.. not really looked into it

not sure.. but thought cleaning a drive too often might have negative effects on the drive heads too

[EvilCensor]

These known working disks.. if they still work on another drive - then the disks probably aren't the issue (are they originals or copies? - because I suppose if they are DSHD (normally identified by a duplicate copy protect hole on the other side) disks instead of DSDD that could be a problem on some A1010s).

If possible you should check the disk drive port with another external drive to eliminate a fault on the Amiga end.. check the condition of the cable - ensure the floppy is seated correctly - in all my years I've never once had to clean a floppy drive head btw.

Try placing a disk in the A1010 to format and tell us what happens, although I agree it does sound faulty (no, really?! ) possibly the misaligned heads Thrashie spoke of.
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Please refer all site and database related matters directly to me - incl. missing games, links, screenshots and suggestions.

[lifeschool]

That's good advice from EC.

Try the disks in an external drive in the same computer (importantly) and tell us if they work. (You can select the boot drive by holding down both mouse buttons as you reset the machine). If they do, its the drive, - if they don't, it could be the CIA chips or the disks themselves.

In the most likely case it's a bad A1010 drive, and I had mine go after two or three years of use. If the drive is old it may have outlived it's own natural lifecycle.

[Why do Amiga drives wear out?? Well, unlike any other computer system before or since, the way the Amiga churns the disks over in the drives for a constant read/write experience is also a constant wear on the drive heads. Games which use deep reads (like Lemmings) really grind the drives, causing both the disk and the drive head to wear out. PCs have the same drives, but while PC disk drives may have be used once in a blue moon to copy things to a Harddrive, an Amiga DD may have been used all-day-long, for years!]

[Thrashie]

[Arkanoid_376970]

Hi guys thanks for the advice

Unfortunately i only got my first Amiga last week and it came with one external. Ill try cleaning the floppy port with some isopropyl alchocol and check the continuity on all the leads to the external from the socket. Is there any utilities like Free Spirit 1541 Aligner for c64 that can be used to align amiga drives? What really throws me is that it can read the disc title but can't "validate" the disc... @lifeschool the internal is fine, its the external that's playing up. Most of my floppies are 'backups' i got as a job lot with my Amiga from a bloke on Lemon64, although legit discs dont seem to work properly either. When i put a disc in it is detected, then the drive spins for a few seconds, then the head makes a grinding sound, then spins for a second, then two grinding sounds from the head, then the message saying the disc cant be validated.


Ark
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could not agree more that 1+1=2

[lifeschool]

ark: yeah, sorry, I got slightly confused - I guessed it was your internal. It still sounds to me like the drive is duff - and considering an A1010 may have a manufactured date of 1988+ it may be 23 years old! - that's perhaps older than YOU are?

I tried all kinds of disk drive head cleaners - from fibre disks to q-tips and everthing in between, and found that the old Amiga adage "This will either fix it or bugger it up altogether" was 100% true in these cases; i.e. it buggered them up altogether. Even changing the drive heads didn't seem to work.

So if you consider an external drive is an essential purchase for your A500, you'll essentially have to consider purchasing another...

[Arkanoid_376970]

lol im 18, it is older than me... yer :/ i was just hoping i could fix it or get it working
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could not agree more that 1+1=2

[lifeschool]

I noticed this video tutorial over on EAB:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-3PtSsn8YY

As you can see, opening up a disk drive and cleaning it out doesn't necessarily do a damn thing to make it work, as this user found out. Besides, using good disks in a bad drive may just bugger up those disks, even if you somehow fix the drive. My advice - get a new one.