LS-120 reading problem - please help -

Paragon (1339)

08-08-2010, 10:58

Hi people, since a couple of days I have a superdisk drive, but I experienced a problem with it on MSX. Can you help? It reads ordinary floppies (720kb/1.44MB), but when entering a 120 MB disk it gives me a diskerror when I type "DIR". I also tried Windows XP for testing, but also there it says it is not formatted. But format does not work. Maybe I have to clean the heads of the LS-120? According to information on the internet, you may not use ordinary floppy cleaning kits as it can brake your drive. Does someone with MSX and LS-120 had this problems before? And does someone use LS-120 disks without problems on MSX? And also important: does someone has a special cleaning kit for the LS-120 for me?

Model drive: Easystor EFD-3120A

By Sd-Snatcher

Hero (582)

08-08-2010, 12:51

Hi, i used them lot of years ago, i remember they are the same that a hard disk for the msx, you must partition them.

But your problem look to be in the hardware.

Have you tested other disks?

By Retrofan

Paragon (1339)

08-08-2010, 15:27

Hi, i used them lot of years ago, i remember they are the same that a hard disk for the msx, you must partition them.

But your problem look to be in the hardware.

Have you tested other disks?

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I've tested other (NEW!) Superdisks, but no luck. I tried to partition them. I don't understand, because old 720kb and 1.44mb diskettes work. And this is definately a Superdisk drive as it shows up as MITSUBISHI LS-120. Could it be dirt on the heads? And DD and HD diskettes are maybe handled on an other way then Superdisks? (laser in stead of heads?)

By Jipe

Paragon (1614)

08-08-2010, 15:51

http://www.msx.ch/sunformsx/download/dl-ide.html

look if you have the last version of FDisk for the ATA-IDE Interface

By DamageX

Master (217)

09-08-2010, 04:37

I used LS-120 diskettes to exchange files between MSX and PC by formating them on the MSX as 32MB FAT12 disks without a partition table. Maybe you can use all 120MB with FAT16 but I never tried it.

By RetroTechie

Paragon (1563)

09-08-2010, 05:31

By Retrofan

Paragon (1339)

09-08-2010, 19:14

I used LS-120 diskettes to exchange files between MSX and PC by formating them on the MSX as 32MB FAT12 disks without a partition table. Maybe you can use all 120MB with FAT16 but I never tried it. OK, so you did make them useable using FDISK with a physical format? And you never had problems reading Superdisks at all? You never had to clean the heads?

By Retrofan

Paragon (1339)

09-08-2010, 19:21

If formatting doesn't work under Windows XP, it's more likely a hardware problem of some sort (maybe that was reason drive was sold), or bad media ... Have you tried FDISK utility on PC (from DOS window, or boot with old MS-DOS floppy) ? Did you check write protect tab on your LS-120 disks? Thanks. Could be, but I don't understand the difference with reading 1.44mb and Superdisks. It does read 1.44 mb without problems. I don't think it has to do with bad media, as I use new/sealed Superdisks from Imation. I also checked the write protect tab, but it isn't write protected. I did not check FDISK on PC, as I don't have it anymore. Do you have a clue why only DD/HD disks can be read, even if it's a Superdisk drive?

By Rataplan

Champion (338)

10-08-2010, 11:01

Well... I can't see how they would use the same head for reading/writing normal floppies and the much higher capacity 120MB disks. I assume there is are 2 heads for that reason, and one might be defective/dirty. Even if they use one head, you can imaging the head has to be much more sensitive and precice with 120MB media than with 1.44MB/720KB media.

http://www.mitsubishielectric.com.au/895.htm#4.

By Retrofan

Paragon (1339)

10-08-2010, 18:28

http://www.mitsubishielectric.com.au/895.htm#4.
OK, I see. I think you're right. I hope one head is dirty, because Windows XP only let me read/write a Superdisk once when I tried to read it for several times (about 50 times!). That should not be possible if the head is defective? Anyway, how should I clean the head? With alcohol? As I don't have a cleaning disk for LS-120, I have to open the drive with care...

By Retrofan

Paragon (1339)

10-08-2010, 18:31

Hi, i used them lot of years ago, i remember they are the same that a hard disk for the msx, you must partition them.

But your problem look to be in the hardware.

Have you tested other disks?

Yes, I tried other disks, but with the same results. I think I have to clean the drive first.

By the way, do you or someone else know how fast LS-120 is on MSX? Is it > 300 kb/s meaning the Superdisks and not the DD/HD media?