Errors with some floppy discs

If your VirtualAcorn can read some floppy discs and not others the fault will be with the individual floppy discs rather than with the floppy disc drive. If any of the discs have fine brown powder around the spring cover then the glue that bonds the magnetic surface to the plastic has failed. Attempts to read such discs may damage the floppy disc drive.

If the discs that cannot be read are commercial titles then it's most likely that the data on them has become damaged over the years. Most usually because they have been stored near a loudspeaker or other magnet. If you have access to a 'real' Acorn computer test the discs to see if they suffer from the same fault.

Support Articles related to floppy discs are:

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