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Re: ? disk drive fault (BBC B)
Posted by Julie on Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 09:59:22
Ian Wolstenholme wrote:

The sector not found error may be caused by a number of things. First I would try making sure that the the disc drive ribbon cable is properly connected to the computer.

If you have a 40/80 track switchable drive, change the track setting and then try reading a disc.

It may be that the discs are not compatible with Acorn DFS. They could be in ADFS format or some kind of PC format or not formatted at all.

Try to format a blank disc to check that the drive is working properly. If the command *FORM40 or *FORM80 gives "Bad command" then you will need a formatting utility disc, which would probably have been supplied with your drive originally.

If you downloaded the programs from the internet and put them on disc using a PC with something like FDC or Anadisk, you may find that the discs do not work under the original Acorn DFS but only with the later Acorn 1770 DFS.

The disc drive may need to use different timings than the default setting. Try issuing each of the following commands one by one. After each command, press BREAK, try to catalogue or boot the disc and if no luck, try the next one:

*FX255,15
*FX255,31
*FX255,47
*FX255,63


Ian


Ian,
Thanks for your e-mail.
The disc drive ribbon is correctly connected. All the discs are 40 track formatted and have all previously worked. I'll try and format a blank disc when I get a chance!! Although, I'm not sure this will work, as the disc drive is not making all the usual sounds (grinding noises) it used to make when it worked a year ago. Perhaps drive head is not moving as it should. Disc drive: Watford Electronics DDFS 1.54T SINGLE DRIVE. Our BBC is not P.C. compatible.

Regards,
Julie

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