How to Use Multiple 1541 Drives on Commodore 64

Commodore 1541 floppy drives use 5.25-inch floppy disks.

The 1541 disk drive is an external floppy disk storage device for Commodore 64, 128 and VIC 20 computer systems. The drive, an external unit with its own power supply, uses 5.25-inch floppy discs and is designed exclusively for Commodore computer systems. You can connect multiple 1541 disk drives to your Commodore 64 without having to modify your computer or load any special drivers. The disk drive's configuration program is preloaded in the device's Read-only memory (ROM).

Things You'll Need

• Commodore 64
• 1541 disk drives
• Commodore serial bus cables

Instructions

1. Turn off and unplug the power cord on the Commodore 64 and the 1541 disk drive attached to the computer.

2. Place the additional 1541 disk drives next to the Commodore 64. The drives can be stacked if you are limited on desktop space.

3. Plug one end of a Commodore serial bus cable into the empty serial bus port on the upper right-hand corner of the 1541 disk drive attached to your Commodore 64.

4. Plug the other end of the serial bus cable into the left serial bus port on the upper right-hand corner of the second 1541 disk drive you want to connect.

5. Plug one end of another Commodore serial bus cable into the empty serial bus port on the upper right-hand corner of the second 1541 disk drive.

6. Plug the other end of the serial bus cable into the left serial bus port on the upper right-hand corner of the third 1541 disk drive you want to connect.

7. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for the next 1541 disk drive you want to connect. You can connect a total of five 1541 disk drives to your Commodore 64 computer system.

8. Plug in the Commodore 64's and the disk drives' power cords.

9. Plug in your Commodore or third-party printer's serial bus cable into the empty serial bus port of the last 1541 disk drive you have connected to your computer, if you have a printer attached to your Commodore 64.

10. Turn on the disk drives, monitor and printer first. Turn on the Commodore 64 last.

Tips & Warnings

• Each of the 1541 floppy drives are assigned a number starting with "8." The second drive in the serial bus connection is "9" and so on.

• To load a program from the second 1541 disk drive, enter "LOAD "File name",9" on the Commodore Basic command line. Enter the quotation marks around the program's file name and include the comma outside of the quotation marks.

References

• Commodore: Commodore VIC 1541 Disk Drive User Manual
• Commodore Free: Commodore 64 Reference Guide

Resources

• Commodore.ca: Commodore 128 & Commodore 64 Tips and Hints