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Commodore produced a number of different floppy diskette drive units, both 8" and 5.25", over the course of its history. Can someone provide a chronological list of the drives, their release dates, brief specifications, and ideally links to further information for each drive? I'm particularly interested in drive units predating the 1541.

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You can get a relative ordering by looking at DOS versions for the drives.

IEEE-488 drives

  • 2040 - first drive, 5.25"x2@170K, 1979, DOS 1.0
  • 3040 - 5.25"x2@170k in Europe, 1979, DOS 1.2
  • 4040 - 5.25"x2@170k, 1980, DOS 2.0
  • 2031 - 5.25"x1@170k, 1980, DOS 2.0
  • 4031 - 5.25"x2@170k, 1980, DOS 2.0
  • 8050 - 5.25"x2@521k, 1980, DOS 2.5
  • 8250 - 5.25"x2@1042k (double-sided), 1981, DOS 2.7
  • 8060 - 8"x1@750k, 1984, DOS 2.7
  • 8061 - 8"x2@800k, 1984, DOS 2.7
  • 8062 - 8"[email protected], 1984, DOS 2.7
  • SFD-1001 - 5.25"x1@1M, 1984, DOS 2.7
  • 8280 - 8"x2@1M, 1984, DOS 3.0

Serial drives

  • 1540 - 5.25"x1@170k, 1980, DOS 2.6
  • 1541 - 5.25"x1@170k, 1982 as VIC-1541 with VIC colors, DOS 2.6
  • 1551 - 5.25"x1@170k, 1984, DOS 2.6
  • 1570 - 5.25"x1@170k, 1985, DOS 3.0
  • 1571 - 5.25"x1@340k (double-sided), 1985, DOS 3.0
  • 1572 - 5.25"x1@340k, 1985, DOS 3.0
  • 1541C - 5.25"x1@170k, 1986, DOS 2.6
  • 1581 - 3.5"x1@800k, 1987, DOS 10.0
  • 1541-II - 5.25"x1@170k, 1988, DOS 2.6

There were also other compatible drives like the MSD-2.

Some useful pages:

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  • Are you sure about the 1541 and the 1541C? Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1541) gives the release years as 1982 and 1986, which is also (a) what I remember, and which (b) also ligns up with the C-64C being released in 1986.
    – Michael Graf
    Commented Mar 20, 2020 at 17:50
  • I think you're right. Corrected.
    – user3486184
    Commented Mar 20, 2020 at 19:01
  • Didn't the Vic-20 come out in 1981? If so then I imagine the 1540 did too; it's the first machine with the Commodore serial bus unless I'm mistaken.
    – Tommy
    Commented Mar 20, 2020 at 19:24
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    I'm pretty sure the VIC supported the C2N tape drive only at first (not much need for a disk with 3.5k) - which agrees with cbmmuseum.kuto.de/floppy_vc1540.html
    – user3486184
    Commented Mar 20, 2020 at 22:54
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    I didn't include the 1572 because it was never released. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1571 - "Commodore announced at the 1985 Consumer Electronics Show a dual-drive version of the 1571, to be called the Commodore 1572, but quickly canceled it...." There were quite a few drives that got announced but never made it into production.
    – user3486184
    Commented Apr 18, 2020 at 4:31
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In addition, here are the Amiga external floppy drives:

  • 1010 - 3.5"x1 @ 880k, 1985
  • 1020 - 5.25"x1 @ 440k, 1986
  • 1011 - 3.5"x1 @ 880k, 1989
  • 1411 - 3.5"x1 @ 880k, 1991

Note that although the 1020 was capable of reading and writing 440k on a single-sided floppy, it was intended to work with IBM-formatted disks up to 360k.

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  • Didn't the Amiga launch in 1985? If so then 1984 for the 1010 probably isn't right?
    – Tommy
    Commented Apr 28, 2020 at 20:59
  • Yeah. It may have been announced in 1984 but release was obviously in 1985. Good catch.
    – Wildcat Matt
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 16:30
  • I seem to remember the 1020 being available in 85, as we got one with our first 1000, which was an "as soon as we can!" buy.
    – Zenzizenzizenzic
    Commented Apr 29, 2021 at 15:48
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    I have read elsewhere that the Amiga 1020 was 440k for Amiga and 360k for PC format disks.
    – Geo...
    Commented Jan 30 at 23:50
  • @Geo... Good catch, it appears to have been possible but it also sounds like it was rarely used that way.
    – Wildcat Matt
    Commented Feb 1 at 4:33

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