Korg Forums

This is an addendum to the problem I had posted with updating the o.s to 3.1.1.

I had formatted the floppies on a computer running vista. It decompressed the img files,and I could read them fine on the pc.

However,when I took them down and inserted them in my drive on the trinity,they are reading "unformatted"

I have several floppies,all of them read "unformatted" but yet the very same ones read fine on the pc. Using Verbatim brand 2HD floppy disks.

My question is:

1) How would I determine unquestionably if the floppy drive in my trinity has gone bad?

2) Could it be a result of dirt on the heads? Being that these floppies are outdated media, can you find cleaners for these drives anywhere??

Thanks again to all the help I've gotten from this group in the past,and continue to receive...This forum is and continues to be a tremendous help,I know im lacking in the cranial membrane but after all..

I have an excuse,I'm just a musician..

Sequenzzer wrote:1) How would I determine unquestionably if the floppy drive in my trinity has gone bad?

Use a blank disk and format it in the Trinity. If successful, then save 'ALL' and check out the contents of the floppy on your PC. If it works, try to write someting on the floppy and put it back into the Trinity to see the results.

Sequenzzer wrote:2) Could it be a result of dirt on the heads? Being that these floppies are outdated media, can you find cleaners for these drives anywhere??

That would be my first guess and attempt to do the cleaning before anything else. You should be able to get head cleaning kits in office supply stores or some of the better computer shops. Worst case run an online search for 'floppy cleaning kit' and I'm sure you'll find at least a dozen results with places in your neighbourhood to buy from.

synthjoe wrote:

Sequenzzer wrote:1) How would I determine unquestionably if the floppy drive in my trinity has gone bad?

Use a blank disk and format it in the Trinity. If successful, then save 'ALL' and check out the contents of the floppy on your PC. If it works, try to write someting on the floppy and put it back into the Trinity to see the results.

Sequenzzer wrote:2) Could it be a result of dirt on the heads? Being that these floppies are outdated media, can you find cleaners for these drives anywhere??

That would be my first guess and attempt to do the cleaning before anything else. You should be able to get head cleaning kits in office supply stores or some of the better computer shops. Worst case run an online search for 'floppy cleaning kit' and I'm sure you'll find at least a dozen results with places in your neighbourhood to buy from.

This works for me. Thank you very much,Synthjoe..Hopefully it's just the evil dirt.

Maybe it is dirt - another option is that cheap FDD's in later PC's are prone to go out of alignment easily and without apparent reason (manifesting in compatibility issues with other drives, but they do work more or less fine on their own). My own experience with the Trinity FDD is that it was made quite robust, works fine on both of my Trinities even well after a decade, no alignment issues, whatsoever...

Make sure you try the FDD in a good quality brand PC or a known quality FD drive in a non-brand PC. However, cleaning the head is always a good idea and it can prevent floppies being damaged by abrasive dust, if unused for an extended period (months/years).

Most likely - broken heads align the drive. I had the same problem: Floppy disks then read, then do not read. Cleaning the heads did not produce results. The solution - replace the drive. The cost of the drive - the minimum (in Russia, $3).
Good luck!

I am now having the same issues with my Trinity V3. I can't read or write any disks. When I try to format the disk with the Trinity, I get an "Error in formatting medium" message. I have installed three different floppy drives--all giving the same results. I have verified that the drives and disks work in a computer. Sounds like this could be a problem with the Trinity's floppy disk controller. Has anyone found a resolution to this issue?

I am having the same issue as well. I had cleared the Korg Trinity memory by pressing <ENTER> and <5> for a previous problem, took it to get fixed, and got it fixed (for the previous unrelated problem). I tried downloading the latest OS, couldn't do it. I tried downloading the first OS with the factory presets, couldn't do it. 'Error in formatting medium'. Tried formatting a blank floppy, same error. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Finally gave up with the floppy disk and bought a USB-MIDI cable and downloaded Trinitro. I didn't recover all of my patches, but I got most of them back. I'm really liking how easy it is to organize everything. Wish I would have tried this years ago.