Booting from Workbench 3.1 floppy "not a valid dos disk"

[Blinx123]

I've finally set up my Amiga 1200 I received from Petro a couple weeks ago.

While it's in splendid shape (NOS) and seems to be fully functional, it simply won't boot from the Amiga Workbench 3.1 floppy that was included, instead telling me that this isn't a valid DOS disk.

Since I don't want to install the workbench (I don't have an HDD for it yet), wouldn't I normally boot from that floppy?

It's been quite a few years since I last used an Amiga and even back then it was a virtual one (WinUAE), so I don't really know if what I'm doing is even remotely correct.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[CrazyC]

Any 20 year old disk is vulnerable to the ravages of time, even if NOS.
Any other disks you can check with?

Sent from my EndeavorU using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jawd]

As CrazyC says i think it is the workbench disk that did not survive.
You could also try the install disk that also boots to a workbech.

 

[Blinx123]

Urgh. They're all busted then.

Install disk doesn't work either.
I really imagined those floppies to be a lot more durable. After all, they weren't even used a single time before I got them.

Any way I can still boot into WB 3.1?
I'm sure as heck not buying another pair of floppies.

 

[davideo]

Have you tried booting with a game?

It could be a problem with the drive rather than the floppy.

Dave G

 

[Blinx123]

Have you tried booting with a game?

It could be a problem with the drive rather than the floppy.

Dave G

I'm kind of hesitant to throw anything else at it.
Won't there be a fair chance I might ruin a perfectly fine floppy?

Workbench disks and Magic Pack disks aside, I only have some pretty rare and sought after games. And none of them have been tested by me either.

 

[davideo]

Do you own 'Amiga Forever' and have a means to write an adf to a floppy?

Dave G

 

[Blinx123]

Do you own 'Amiga Forever' and have a means to write an adf to a floppy?

Dave G

Nope.
Nor do I have empty DD disks floating around.

I was actually planning to do all this once I had found an HDD and installed OS 3.1 to it.

 

[davideo]

Well that's nadged that idea

One other option is to check that nothing has worked loose inside the Miggy and to also clean the detector pins on the front of the floppy drive.

Sometimes both of these can cause the problem you have with the floppy discs.

Dave G

 

[Blinx123]

Thanks.

I guess I'll have to break the seal on Amiga open a bit earlier than I originally intended to.

I didn't hear anything strange or loose when I just shook it but you never know.

I can't really see the detector pins in this drive (it's a modified HD drive, as far as I remember reading about the later ESCOM model I own). Can they be cleaned from the outside?

 

[davideo]

You should be able to see them just inside the mouth of the drive. All you need to do for now is to make sure that they move up and down easily.

When the floopy is in the drive have you tried to give it a gentle push in just in case it's not all the way in the drive. My 4000D sometimes needs a little nudge!!

Even NOS Miggys will eventually need the capacitors replacing.

Dave G

 

[CrazyC]

See if you can get someone in country to send you a few old disks they can test first. Would volunteer but looks like you are Germany from your profile.

Sent from my HTC One X.

 

[Blinx123]

Ok.

It seems like my floppy drive is acting up.
I just took the time the drive would actively try to access the disk and it was less than 5 seconds (3, at the most). That's probably not how it should be, even if the disk was faulty, right?

I then tried to remove, re-insert and push the floppy further in, like you said.
The result: my Amiga 1200 was now reporting that sector block 002 on the disk was faulty. When I then removed the floppy and pushed retry, the drive started acting up and wouldn't stop spinning.

I then turned it off and back on. When I re-inserted the disk, it had gone back to the usual "Not a valid DOS disk" nonsense and no matter how many time I tried, I couldn't get it to report the sector block error again.

I sure hope I haven't just ruined a perfectly good floppy. I also hope I can get this fixed eventually. At this point, my two best bets are to (a) look for an Amiga Club in my area (b) look for a secondary drive I can hook up.

I'm at my former boss' place later that day. Perhaps he can lend me an IBM compliant/PC high-density floppy drive. How hard would it be to convert one of these to an Amiga compliant double-density drive and would the use of this hurt my disks (probably not more than the internal drive, I assume)?

Lastly. Are double-density drives a sought after commodity? Or are they rather common? I'm sure my former boss would be a lot more happy to lend me parts of his stock, if I could make him a business proposition (he's always on the lookout for a new niche to invest in).

 

[bdb]

Failing conversion of a PC floppy, you could buy a new one from Amigakit or Vesalia -- in 2 large pizza range.

 

[mjnurney]

a dead floppy drives isnt really a big deal, there are plenty for sale on here

 

[Blinx123]

a dead floppy drives isnt really a big deal, there are plenty for sale on here

Strangely, I would be way more content with the floppy drive being broken than any of my floppies.

The drive is a POS anyways. So this would be the perfect excuse to fit in a real DD drive.