YuT666 Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 (edited) Hi, bought some Atari 8 Bit stuff for my collection recently and tested all of the hardware. Everything is working fine ... the 1050 floppy loads all the atari disks without any problems, but when i get into DOS 2.5 and want to format a disk, i always receive error 173 in the end of the formating (i took 1 minute or so). I tested 20 different disk, but it is always the same error ... i always hear the formating sound (what shows, that i shoud work), but at the end .... Error 173. I don't know why. What COULD be wrong, but don't forget ... the drive loads all my Atari disks wihtout a single problem. Maybe the disks i want wo format are in a bad condition ... but all 20 disks? Help would be great. Thanks. Tom Edited August 27, 2016 by YuT666 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 The error is a bad format error, I can't remember if the 1050 head is actually a read and a write head all in one or its split, I thought it was split from memory which would mean that the read head is fine but the write is screwed....Just in case, have you done a head clean just in case, I know its reading but its worth a go, you can be quite firm on the head with the alcohol but don't rip it off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YuT666 Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 (edited) Thanks man ... I'll try to clean the heads first ... Edited August 27, 2016 by YuT666 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russg Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 (edited) Hi, bought some Atari 8 Bit stuff for my collection recently and tested all of the hardware. Everything is working fine ... the 1050 floppy loads all the atari disks without any problems, but when i get into DOS 2.5 and want to format a disk, i always receive error 173 in the end of the formating (i took 1 minute or so). I tested 20 different disk, but it is always the same error ... i always hear the formating sound (what shows, that i shoud work), but at the end .... Error 173. I don't know why. What COULD be wrong, but don't forget ... the drive loads all my Atari disks wihtout a single problem. Maybe the disks i want wo format are in a bad condition ... but all 20 disks? Help would be great. Thanks. Tom Do you have a write notch on the disk? I don't think you can write to a 5.25" floppy without the write notch. Look at an old, working floppy to see where the notch goes. There's a special notch maker that punches the notch in the correct place. There's also write notch tabs you can write protect a floppy with. Edited August 28, 2016 by russg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YuT666 Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 Thanks, but that is sadly not the problem ... I'm cleaning the heads now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.