page_title: Commodore 1541
section_title: Versions and third-party clones
hierarchical_section_title: Commodore 1541 / History / Versions and third-party clones
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Commodore 1541C 5,25-Zoll-Diskettenlaufwerk (weiße Version mit Hebelverschluß). Oben drauf das serielle Anschlusskabel. English: Commodore 1541C 5.25" Diskette Drive (white version with lever locking mechanism). Serial cable on top.
context_page_description: The Commodore 1541 is a floppy disk drive which was made by Commodore International for the Commodore 64, Commodore's most popular home computer. The best-known floppy disk drive for the C64, the 1541 is a single-sided 170-kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks. The 1541 directly followed the Commodore 1540.
  The disk drive uses group coded recording and contains a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, doubling as a disk controller and on-board disk operating system processor. The number of sectors per track varies from 17 to 21. The drive's built-in disk operating system is CBM DOS 2.6.
context_section_description: All but the very earliest non-II model 1541s can use either the Alps or Newtronics mechanism. Visually, the first models, of the VIC-1541 denomination, have an off-white color like the VIC-20 and VIC-1540. Then, to match the look of the C64, CBM changed the drive's color to brown-beige and the name to Commodore 1541.
  The 1541's numerous shortcomings opened a market for a number of third-party clones of the disk drive, a situation that continued for the lifetime of the C64. Well-known clones are the Oceanic OC-118 a.k.a. Excelerator+, the MSD Super Disk single and dual drives, the Enhancer 2000, the Indus GT, and CMD 's FD-2000 and FD-4000. Nevertheless, the 1541 became the first disk drive to see widespread use in the home and Commodore sold millions of the units.
  In 1986, Commodore released the 1541C, a revised version that offered quieter and slightly more reliable operation and a light beige case matching the color scheme of the Commodore 64C. It was replaced in 1988 by the 1541-II, which uses an external power supply to provide cooler operation and allows the drive to have a smaller desktop footprint (the power supply "brick" being placed elsewhere, typically on the floor). Later ROM revisions fixed assorted problems, including a software bug that caused the save-and-replace command to corrupt data.
caption: 1541C, the first upgrade version
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