Questions tagged [disk-drive]
For questions about computer disk drives for removable magnetic storage media.
56 questions
3 votes
0 answers
159 views
What might cause my Commodore 1541 and FSD-1 disk drives to have a bus conflict
I'm seeing some strange behavior on my Commodore 1541 and FSD-1 disk drives. Both drives seemingly work fine when attached to the C64 by themselves, but if I set the FSD-1 to be device 9,10 or 11 - ...
- 11k
3 votes
1 answer
486 views
What causes the Commodore 1581 drive to malfunction when it and a cassette deck are both plugged into a Commodore 64?
At 14:46, in this 8-Bit Show and Tell video, a bug is demonstrated with the 1581 diskette drive on the Commodore 64: if you plug in a cassette deck at the same time and merely push play then stop, you ...
- 29.5k
17 votes
5 answers
4k views
Why was the 1540 a computer in its own right?
The Commodore 1540 disk drive, along with its better-known successor the 1541, is a computer in its own right, with its own 6502 CPU. Why was it designed like that? It adds significant cost to the ...
- 65.3k
6 votes
1 answer
547 views
In the RL02 disk system, why does the “read” command take CHS coordinates, when there is also a separate “seek” command?
Why is it that the RL02 disk system of the PDP11 has a seek command yet the read command also knows where to read from as the cylinder/head/sector are given via the 'DAR' register? http://www....
0 votes
1 answer
506 views
How to set up a (physical) parallel port so that it connects to a Zip drive? (emulated Windows 98) [closed]
I have a legacy Zip 100 drive. Of course it will not run under Windows 11. So, I installed emulated Windows 98 via PCem. I also bought a PCIe parallel port card (AX99100), as USB-to-parallel adapters ...
- 3
15 votes
3 answers
3k views
Is side 0 on the top or bottom of a floppy disk?
Assuming a 3.5" or 5.25" diskette placed on a surface with its label side facing upwards, which side of the magnetic disc within does head #0 of the drive reside on?
- 253
20 votes
5 answers
6k views
How did it come that SATA HDDs use ATA while SATA CD drives use SCSI as protocol?
SATA HDDs and SSDs use ATA as software protocol for data transmission (on the SATA cable). SATA CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drives use SCSI. Please note that AHCI is the protocol used between the SATA controller ...
- 5,490
28 votes
4 answers
5k views
Did something like floppy disk jukeboxes for home computers exist in the 70s or 80s? Would that have been a feasible concept?
Many home computers in the 1970s and 1980s had two floppy disk drives, or owners bought a second drive, to reduce having to play disk jockey. A second drive was especially popular with Commodore Amiga ...
- 1,169