Formatting issues - 1050, 810, XF551

[Grig]

So, until today, all three of my drives worked great. Now, I cannot format a disk in all three, either through SIO2PC or standard DOS 2, 2.5, 3, etc.

Nothing seems to work. I have formatted two disks all evening. They usually start out okay and then when they sound like they will almost be done, i get a "beep" and then they re-start the formatting process. I get the same results from my 800 and 130XE no matter what combination I use. They all seem to read disks just fine. Sometimes I get the dreaded "173" error.

[+Nezgar]

Can you clarify what you mean "through SIO2PC" ? Formatting a virtual SIO2PC disk should be almost instantaneous.

 

For real drives, ensure the r/w heads are clean... (Use q-tip & Isopropyl alcohol - the ceramic head surfaces should look glassy clean and reflective) If it's dirty enough, it might actually be scratching material off of the disk causing damage and further reducing read/write ability. Look for visual 'lines' scratched into the magnetic surface for evidence of this. The innermost tracks (closest to the centre) are have the highest bit-density, and are the most likely to fail verification.

 

You might want to visually inspect the head movement during a format with the drive cover off. The stock 810 firmware formats all tracks first from tracks 0-39, then verifies from 39-0. A stock 1050 formats and verifies each track sequentially starting with track 0 before moving to the next track. So, in the case of the 810, your disk will be completely erased even if verification fails, and with a 1050 only erased to the point of the first verification failure. I can't remember the XF551, but I think it formats and verifies each track together too. 0-39 on side A, then 39-0 on side B.

[Grig]

The disks look clean. SIO2PC - real disks, yes, not virtual.

I just formatted a disk on my happy 1050 using SmartDOS 6.1 and it worked - but it has been giving me many 173 errors all evening as well.

SIO2PC is writing to the real disk on my happy 1050 just fine too.

 

I am thoroughly confused.

 

I will take the covers off and inspect the track movement.

 

Thank you.

[+kheller2]

You wouldn’t happen to be using the same power brick for all of them would you?

[+Nezgar]

Another thought, if the RPM is too slow/fast, it will cause format problems.. and potentially R/W problems. -- Which as kheller2 suggested, could also be caused by an under-delivering power supply.

 

Check RPMs with the Happy 7.0 or 7.1 Utility disk for the Happy 1050, and the 1050 Diagnostic Disk for the stock 1050's ( https://archive.org/details/a8b_1050_Disk_Diagnostics_1983_Atari )

 

When you say "SIO2PC is writing to the real disk on my happy 1050" I'm guessing you mean a 10502PC or ProSystem type adapter, letting the PC access the real drive directly... (No Atari computer involved)

[+bob1200xl]

Do you know that the disks you are trying to format are good? DD, not HD? Have they formatted in the past? You should try a disk that you formatted before you had this problem. See if you can re-format it consistently.

 

If you can read and write, the only thing that might not work is the wrong configuration (formatting DD on an SD drive) or bad media. DOS 2.0 on an 810 should work every way.

 

Bob

[Marius]

Are you sure you do not have two drives connected and powered on with the same drive number?

 

When you have a D1: active in Sio2PC/APE/Aspeqt and you try to format on a real D1: you could get exact this behavior too.

[Grig]

You wouldn’t happen to be using the same power brick for all of them would you?

no

[Grig]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try some more today

[Mclaneinc]

Do all the usual checks, change the SIO cable, if the drives are linked then unlink and try as individuals...

 

Its weird that 3 would go at once, the chances of that are slim unless there was some sort of electrical / electronic fault in the chain..

 

And after a drive head clean (if you can) perhaps try a different batch of disks (if you have any)

Edited January 6, 2019 by Mclaneinc

[Marius]

I once had weird diskdrive behavior when I used a 1010 psu by accident all the time when I was testing.

[Marius]

And last but no least. If you test it on a standalone system. With just that diskdrive and nothing else connected. Make sure that you try a different DOS.

[Grig]

okay i think the issues are solved - I think it was a case of mainly bad disks and I had my SIO2PC cable plugged in at times into the second SIO port.

 

Thank you to all for the help.