Expert: Gregory Donner - 6/11/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hi Greg,I have recently purchase an Amiga 600 , came the other day in great condition and a game I had loaded fine , all workbench and delux paint disks that came with the machine all loaded. I got some more games from ebay and one it would not load one but other it did. this morning however it will now not load anything the kickstart screen comes up and the drive whirrs and searches , the screen goes blank for a second and then it just returns to the kickstart screen like nothing happened.
I haev taken drive out and cleaned but still same , I suppose i need a new drive ?
If i do can I get an external one to boot off , or should i replace internal first ?

any help thanks

Andy

ANSWER: Hi Andy,

As you guessed, it sounds like the internal floppy drive is faulty. You can indeed buy an external floppy drive and boot off of it (which is the easiest, and cheapest solution), but if you're familiar with computer hardware replacement, then the internal drive is something you could do yourself. Be sure to specify the Amiga 600 model if/when asking for replacing the internal drive. Any standard Amiga external floppy drive with work with any Amiga model. Here are some places you can check for parts and pricing (in addition to eBay.com as you're already familiar with them):

* AmigaKit (www.amigakit.com)
* AmiBay (www.amibay.com)
* Software Hut (www.softhut.com)

I hope this helps!

Greg

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Greg , thanks for super quick reply , the Only thing i'm concerned about
Is that all disks loaded first time , does this mean drive is breaking them?
It's strange because the drive is not making and really awful noises
Like normal when they go , it just makes a couple of chirps like normal reading
And then quits , quite weird

Answer
Hi Andy,

I'm not aware of any instances in the past when drives have messed up diskettes, so you don't need to worry about that. I think it's just a matter of the drive itself going bad and needing replacement. If it's unable to read anything, it won't keep trying endlessly, which is why it quits. Having an external drive is a good way to expand your system and verify the status of the internal drive.

Greg