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Apple Disk II reads just fine but won't write/format

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zippysticks

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UK, South East
Folks,

I have two Disk II units connected to my IIe and both will read disks happily but neither will write/format disks.

It seems odd that both drives have the same behaviour so I was naturally thinking its something in the computer/controller card - any ideas of what to look for welcome.
I'm limited on being able to load any test/diagnostics software via the cassette port - so if anyone has software in .wav format that might help, please point me towards it.

The drive seemingly doesn't even try to access the disk for writing/formatting - no head seek or drive spindle motion.
I simply get a 'disk error' message returned.

Thanks

Ian
 
Last edited:
I would start at the cable and test that first. If both drives are doing the same thing, good place to start.
 
I assume you have them both installed at the same time? What has been your testing procedure to determine they both do not write? Why are you limited in your ability to load diagnostic software from the drives themselves (are you unable to write the diagnostic software to disk)? Do you have a copy of DOS that will load?

The only common thing is the controller card so that is where I would look first. I assume you do not have another card?
 
If the drives are reading I’d say the problem is elsewhere. Check the cable first. I had a drive that kept telling every disk was write protected and it turned out to be a broken wire in the cable. Yes check the controller card. If this symptom is the same on both drives it’s probably NOT an analog board issue inside the drive. Try swapping the disk ii controller card into another slot. If the problem is still there, try a different controller card.
 
The original Disk II drive has its own cable and each, in a two drive configuration, connects to a different connector on the interface card. Unless he happens to have two drives each with a bad cable the problem is unlikely to be either cable. The only common thing is the interface card (aside from the computer itself).
 
If there’s any other cards, I’d remove them
I’d try it with just one drive connected
Then I’d try it with just the other drive connected
Next I’d reseat the chips on the Disk II card
Then I’d try the card in a different slot
 
oldpcguy said:
The original Disk II drive has its own cable and each, in a two drive configuration, connects to a different connector on the interface card. Unless he happens to have two drives each with a bad cable the problem is unlikely to be either cable. The only common thing is the interface card (aside from the computer itself).
Click to expand...
Thats right - each drive has its own cable so unlikely to be that.
No other cards in the system.
I have been using the apple file server site from my mobile phone connected to the cassette audio input to try and clone the disk image to a floppy. Insta disk loads the file, inflates it and soon as it tries to write to the disk it fails with the disk error - no movement on the drive so apparently not even trying. Have also tried broadly the same approach with an ADTPro audio connection with the same result on both drives.
I don't have a copy of DOS to load from floppy - was trying to produce a bootable DOS 3.3 or Prodos to unlock some further machine tests. Is it possible to load DOS form a cassette file ?
 
zippysticks said:
Thats right - each drive has its own cable so unlikely to be that.
No other cards in the system.
I have been using the apple file server site from my mobile phone connected to the cassette audio input to try and clone the disk image to a floppy. Insta disk loads the file, inflates it and soon as it tries to write to the disk it fails with the disk error - no movement on the drive so apparently not even trying. Have also tried broadly the same approach with an ADTPro audio connection with the same result on both drives.
I don't have a copy of DOS to load from floppy - was trying to produce a bootable DOS 3.3 or Prodos to unlock some further machine tests. Is it possible to load DOS form a cassette file ?
Click to expand...
How are you performing your tests? Are you doing so in a two drive configuration (i.e. both drives connected)? A single drive configuration where you've swapped between the two? If the former have you attempted to write to the second drive (i.e. using ADTPro)?
 
Wayne Stewart said:
If there’s any other cards, I’d remove them
I’d try it with just one drive connected
Then I’d try it with just the other drive connected
Next I’d reseat the chips on the Disk II card
Then I’d try the card in a different slot
Click to expand...
Doh! - it was your last suggestion Wayne - there is a problem with the slot.

For some reason I assumed that the Disk II card always went in slot 7 (its the only place I have ever seen them)

Physically teh slot looks to be in good condition so I'll have to pull the board and buzz each of the pins through tomorrow.

Thanks all.
 
Disk II (5.25 drive) cards usually go in slot 6. 7 was used for mass storage (hard drives, etc...) 5 was used for 3.5 drives. 4 was used for the Apple mouse card. 3 was the 80 column card. 2 for the modem and 1 for the printer. 0 (Apple ][/][+) was used for the language card (16k, or bank switched up to 512k or more...)

-Howard
 
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