Physical layout
Physical Disk Layout for the 1540/1541
CBM DOS
Disk format for the C64 1541 disk drive
Categories:
The 1541 disk drive used 5.25" disks. The standard CBM DOS format is 170 KB with 35 tracks and 256-byte sectors providing 165K for storage.
Although standard disks are only 35 tracks, it was mechanically possible to get 40 tracks by using either custom formatting or third party DOS's.
The format described in this section also applies to .D64 disk images that can be used with both
Emulators like VICE
and the PI1541 attached to a real C64.
Directory Track
Directory track 18
Block Availability Map
Directory track 18 sector 0, the BAM and disk details
File format
How files are stored on the disk
D64 Image Format
CBM DOS as a single image for Emulators
Auto boot
Making a disk bootable on the C128
GEOS Extensions
GEOS VLIR (Variable Length Index Record)
Last modified November 1, 2021: Add D64 image format, move entire section out of kernal as it's not specific to it (ee252da)