What is the storage capacity of the Commodore 1581?

Total formatted capacity 808,960 bytes, commonly referred to as 880K

Commodore 1581 Disk Drive

Updated 1 January 2024

The Commodore 1581 is an innovative 3.5" disk drive that can be used with 8-bit Commodore computers. The Commodore 1581 was specifically designed for the Commodore 128, Commodore 64, the Plus-4, Commodore 16, and VIC20. The 1581 uses 3.5" disks with the following features:

Automatic selection of standard or fast serial transfer rates
Double-sided, double-density MFM data recording—provides more than 800K formatted storage capacity per disk (400K+ per side)
Special high-speed burst commands—commands used for machine language programs, transfer data several times faster than the standard or fast serial rates
Support for Basic 2.0 Commands and Basic 7.0 disk access commands
Sequential, relative and direct access commands for accessing and writing data files

Commodore 1581 for sale

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Read Commodore 1581 3½ Disk Drive Manuals Online

Commodore 1581
user's guide
(read online)

Commodore 1581
Specification
(read online)

Commodore 1581
Ultimate Toolkit
(read online)

Commodore 1581
sevice manual
(read online)

Sams Computerfacts Commodore 1581 Disk Drive

Sams Computerfacts
1581 Service Data
(read online)

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