Powerbook 1400c won't format floppy's as HFS

[max1zzz]

I have a powerbook 1400c that works perfectly except from the fact that it refuses to format floppies as HFS or ProDOS, it will format them as MsDOS just fine. it reads both HFS and DOS floppies just fine (Both 1.4M and 800K)

When i attempt to format a 1.4m disk is will go through the initialise and verify phase's, then it will fail on the updating phase (it will spit the disk out saying "the disk is defective")

With 800k floppies it will fail on the initialise phase (it will spit the disk out simpling stating "initialisation failed")

At first i thourght that it was a dirty read head, but i can't see why that would stop it from only writing HFs and ProDOS

Thanks

max1zzz

 

[phreakout]

I would probably look at the very entrance of the drive (push the door open) and see if there is any debris, dust, etc., blocking the 2 micro-switches on the left and right corners. If not micro-switches, then they may be optical sensors.

Basically, the one on the left senses whether the write protect tab on the floppy disk has been enabled. The one on the right senses what size/density of floppy disk you have. If the hole is blocked, then the disk would be about 800K; if open, it's about 1.44MB.

It is possible that the read/write heads are dirty and need to be cleaned. Use a floppy head cleaner or a q-tip and rubbing alcohol to carefully finish that job. If you still haven't any luck, the read/write heads might be misaligned. You'll need to realign them with the proper tools and software.

Finally, try formatting the disk in another Mac with a 1.44MB floppy drive to rule out the disk being bad. If the disk is still good, then the drive is the problem. You can also replace the drive and see if that cures it.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 

[max1zzz]

the two reed switches appear to be fine, as do the optical sensors (as it can tell if disks are write protected and what size they are just fine)

I will try cleaning the write heads and realigning them, is here any guide or anything on how to do this?

Thanks

maxzzz