These were released in 1993 well after most folks had moved on from the Commodore 64 and 128. But as you all know, with the innovations from CMD a small hard-core group of C64/128 power users were able to upgrade their old machines in ways that seemed like the stuff of dreams and kept them going well into the next decade (usually as BBSes, or simply remarkable 8-bit battlestations generally packed with GEOS and the like).
In the early 90s CMD made and sold two different 3.5" floppy disk drives. One was the FD-2000 and the other the FD-4000.
The FD-2000 was a lot like a Commodore 1581, but on steroids. The FD-2000 can hold 1600 kB of storage using standard double-sided, high-density (HD) floppies. You know - the ones you can find just about anywhere (even Amazon). The 1581 can only use 800K DSDD disks - harder to find and half the space. I'm not dissing the 1581, but the FD-2000 has obvious storage benefits right off the bat.
The FD-2000 has several more features that make the 1581 seem quite limited, especially when you consider the 1581 is truly either a data storage device (duh, but not much software was made for the drive) or a GEOS-specific workhorse.
FD-2000 additional benefits:
- Fully compatible with all Commodore serial IEC computers
- 1541 Emulation (You can create special Partitions that emulate the 1541 drive/disk)
- 1571 Emulation
- 1581 Emulation
- Compatibility with standard double density 1581 disks
- CMD Native Mode, with support up to 31 partitions of any combination of 1541, 1571, 1581, and native CMD partition types (which includes full subdirectory support). Native Mode also allowed full use of an entire disk in a single partition - simply awesome in GEOS.
- Built-in drive # swap option for drive #8 and 9 (extremely handy)
- Supports device numbers from 8-15 via dip switches.
- Expanded ability to use partitions and subdirectories
- Real Time Clock (RTC) - optional add-on. This is especially cool with GEOS and can also be used to time-stamp files.
- Built-in JiffyDOS
- CMD Native Mode, which allowed full use of an entire disk in a single partition (simply awesome in GEOS)
But, since the ED format disk is such a unicorn, I never really cared about that drive. The FD-2000 was where it was at as far as I was concerned.
And then one hit my radar. A real Frankenstein looking thing, super rough around the edges.
But, I told myself, maybe the aesthetics of it would scare some people off. So, I sneaked into the bushes and slowly extended my sniper rifle. (Lordy)
Thankfully, I won.
As soon as I got the thing I removed its Borg appendage and pondered what to do about the paint pen on the front. I also quickly discovered the RTC was either never added or was dead.
After some research, I discovered Thomas Christoph of corei64 in Canada creates (and sells) extremely high-quality case labels at a very reasonable price ($25). I couldn't believe my luck.
I was nervous as hell about applying the label accurately but decided for the investment I'd already made it was worth a shot.
Today, I got to work.
I took a deep breath and started to remove the original label. I was done in less than 2 minutes. However it left a really nasty residue behind I was going to have to deal with next.
Another deep breath, then it was time to put the new label on.
Reassembly...
So, now I have this thing to deal with next.
This one really terrifies me due to the size of the label. Getting it all aligned in a single go makes me a bit anxious just thinking about it. And the cleaning process will probably take 2-3 times as long as it did for the little FD-2000. But it has to happen.
See those 2 white stickers for "Swap" and "Reset"? Those are covering HOLES. Yep, holes. So I will indeed take the plunge. And probably soon.
Update: see also RAMlink Label Repair