Commodore 1581 Floppy Disk Drive: A Brief Look

[@stephenbruce8320]

I had several back in the day and I did indeed use them for my BBS and they were useful for backing up data. When I started buying all the old classic computers the 1581 was on my list and I am happy to have one in my collection.

[@nethoncho]

8-Bit Show And Tell sent me here

[@AmigaLove]

Hey - thanks for letting me know, and I hope you enjoyed the video!

[@TheGuruMeditation]

Awesome video my man. I never saw this drive before. I AmigaLove it! Nice running length too. 2 more seconds and it would be 4:20 ;-)

[@AmigaLove]

LOL! Holy 'smoke' you're right. Doh! Hm... I guess 4:18 it is! ;) From this day forth...(echo echo)

[@SteveGuidi]

If I'm not mistaken, the Amiga 500 internal disk drive was basically a space-reorganized 1581. A lot of the parts are interchangeable.

[@AmigaLove]

I've never heard that before. Is that right? Hey - good to see you Steve, thanks for watching!

[@SteveGuidi]

​@@AmigaLove Of course, I should always provide a reference for claims like this, and admittedly, I originally heard this by word of mouth from someone who was interested in buying my 1581 long ago. I found the following thread from lemon64 which sort-of suggests this is the case (search for Amiga): www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22232. So you can stick an Amiga internal drive with the controller into a 1581 case and it works as expected. But I'm interested in the technical details like if there are any limitations or if it is the same hardware in both machines. I'll let you know if I find something!

[@SteveGuidi]

@@AmigaLove kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZabcnuPf8mLftUm3s At 7m3s, Robin makes reference to this same idea.

[@8BitNaptime]

Having this back then was like having a hard drive on GEOS.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Prices on eBay have been rocketing into orbit for these drives lately - so glad I grabbed mine (complete in box) when I did a couple years back! it truly is a terrific drive and a great companion to the 128. Hmm... think I'll try hooking it up to the ol' VIC-20 just for grins and giggles... :)

[@AmigaLove]

Hah! Right? I mean wouldn’t that be a sight? You could probably fit most of your VIC software collection on half a dozen disks. Hah!

[@Vector_Ze]

Just checked eBay and found a Buy it Now for about $180. Not what I would call a price that's rocketing into orbit. In fact, less that the original MSR minus inflation. Looks like a bargain! On the other hand, the excellent TheC64 (maxi) lets you do with a $20 USB stick you'll never fill. I'd recommend buying two though, for easy peasy system backup on your desktop PC.

[@CityXen]

1581 = awesome

[@DigitalFacts]

You also should have mentioned a few drawbacks of this drive.

[@AmigaLove]

I mentioned the main one (the key one for me): not being able to play most C64 games. That's a huge hit. Interestingly, there are some folks who have rewritten some games to work with it after the fact, which I could have added. I should at least put that in the article version. What other drawbacks are there for you? Thanks for watching!

[@DigitalFacts]

@@AmigaLove Early Dos revision tends to destroy the directory structure and leaves the disc unreadable. This was fixed with a later revision of the DOS. Btw. I really like that video. No offense intended here, just a quick note to round up the story a little.

[@AmigaLove]

@@DigitalFacts Hey - I did not know that. I wonder if there is a way for me to tell (w/o cracking open the case) which DOS/ROM I have? Also - if I upgraded to JiffyDOS, would that eliminate the issue? I've never had a disk go bad (knock on wood) so maybe my drives (I have 2) are later models. Hm... Thanks for the kind words, and I appreciate your comments!

[@DigitalFacts]

@@AmigaLove To check DOS version, run this little prog just after switching on the C64: 1 open1,8,15 2 input#1,a,b$,c,d 3 print a;b$;c;d 4 close 1 There was a problem with early DOS versions, but not (as I said before) the directory corruption problem. This is due to a faulty WD1770 disc controller IC. If you have had no problems with disc corruption at all, no action necessary. But it is always a good idea to upgrade to jiffy. So much more features. BTW there is a program called 1581diag that checks for some of the probs and reports them. Just google it. For other (hardware) related problems and fixes, visit: personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/1581/1581.txt

I always dreamed about it

[@PCTV321]

🤩💥👌🏻❤

[@Nighthawke70]

Toys R Us? You lucky duck.

[@AmigaLove]

Some (not all) of the Toys R Us stores were simply epic in the mid-80s. I really miss those days hard core.

[@Nighthawke70]

@@AmigaLove With Amazon turning into a giant Chinese flea market, we really need for brick and mortar stores to kick it up a notch. But with the bug running rampant, it makes things a tad difficult. So we are stuck for awhile.

[@gregryan7761]

The BIOS included commands for parallel output along with the standard serial interface commands. It is possible to achieve parallel output, increasing data throughput/transmission. I wonder why nobody has tried? It would take the slowest disk drives deigned for 8 bit computers and make them at least as fast as Apple.

[@vcv6560]

Seeing the A3000 read the 1581's 8 bit disk was the treat for me, I don't recall that documented BITD.

[@AmigaLove]

That software’s final release that I use in the video was in 1999, believe it or not. Pretty crazy! There’s another package that’ll create a 1581 file system on the Amiga which recognizes the disks when you pop them in. Super cool. Thanks for watching!

[@indiosse]

i got the original drive without an eject button, where can i get a 3d replacement

[@Charleshawn66]

Good video! I bought a "Huge C128 lot" off of eBay for $750 buy it now price as soon as I saw the new listing. I wanted the 1581 drive, two 1764 REU's and a 1351 mouse that were in the lot to go with my C128DCR that I had just bought a few weeks earlier. I also got a C128, 1571 drive, 1702 monitor, two devices to hook up much better printer and a ton of boxed C128 business software, so I feel it was well worth $750 for the lot when I see a working 1581 going for over $400 and up to $500. I love your disk notcher!! I had one since the 80's that broke a few years ago. I went on eBay to replace it and there were only a few and they wanted way more than what I wanted to pay for at the time! I'm now back to my old one-hole punch that I used in 1984 for a year or so until I bought my notcher. I remember seeing them in the late 90's for less than $5, should have bought a spare or two then!

[@AmigaLove]

Back in the 80s some of my disks looked like they'd been bitten like a Reese's peanut butter cup I'd notch them so many times before getting that 2nd side to work. Hah!

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

We need a modern retro USB 1541 with a retro Commodore serial adapter so it can be used on new and old machines.

[@chuckcobb2392]

Just buy a zoomfloppy usb

[@esseferio]

Short but effective :)

[@AmigaLove]

Thanks, esseferio. Yeah - I wasn't going to take it apart and break it all down to the tiniest bits. Just the key points from a user's perspective. Thanks for watching!

[@bob19611000]

This drive kept my C128D relevant for a few more years when my organization standardized on IBM computers. Ultimately with GEODOS running on both (CMD and IBMs) it was used for more than just transferring text / flat files.

[@AmigaLove]

That is really cool to hear, that your 128D/1581 was used for so long in a business environment. What kind of business where you in, Bob A?

[@bob19611000]

@@AmigaLove Transportation infrastructure engineering and construction

[@AmigaLove]

@@bob19611000 Fascinating! Do you recall what kind of software you were running on it at the time? I presume C128 80-column business applications, or were they older legacy CP/M business apps, which could also run on the C128?

[@bob19611000]

@@AmigaLove Native commercial C128 80-column stuff and some custom basic programs. The basic programs were to do field calculations for surveying and bridge construction form setting. Also as mentioned used the GEOS software to do word processing and graphics across platforms.

[@commodorecave5581]

Thanks for the vid. What a great and complete boxed 1581 you have. Very rare today. Interesting cars at 2:10 ;-) Cheers.

[@AmigaLove]

Yeah, it's a pretty nice one. The only thing the box was missing was the original floppy disk that shipped with it. But thankfully we have the internet to provide images for that these days. =)

[@kneehighspy]

great vid amigalove!

[@AmigaLove]

Thanks so much kneehighspy! So glad you liked it and thanks for watching!

[@darrell3O87OO]

Great video

[@AmigaLove]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for checking it out!