Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!fox!portal!cup.portal.com!LadyHawke
From: LadyHawke@cup.portal.com (Classic - Concepts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: !HELP! BAD DISKS ? (Drives on I
Message-ID: <24147@cup.portal.com>
Date: 17 Nov 89 07:25:40 GMT
References: <32315@auc.UUCP> <212200015@s.cs.uiuc.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 21

> something is distinctly wrong with my A500

1.  This is just to confirm the previous post that there IS a virus which
    can cause format to not work.  I discovered this after I got VirusX.
    When I had purged the virus from about 4 diskettes, the FORMAT problem
    went away.
2.  Have you moved your 500 without protecting the drive mechanism somehow?
    You can't 'park' a floppy, but people do various things, feeding it a
    disk, using a cardboard insert, etc. if they are moving their machines
    so it doesn't get damaged.
3.  Your disk might be slightly out of alignment.  It might not be bad 
    enough to show up all the time, but might show up on FORMAT.  A realign-
    ment and cleaning usually runs abpit $36 (around here, anyway).         
4.  Cheap diskettes?  Bad batch?  Some very early SKC diskettes were bad.
5.  Bug in the operating system, depending on whether you menu-select or
    use CLI???   I've always used CLI with no problems.
 
     You haven't had this problem on IBMs?  You've just been lucky.  Look
at how many sectors get locked out in formatting a diskette on an IBM.  At
least if it formats on an Amiga, you know the whole disk is good and usable.
                                                   Julie (LadyHawke)