Inside the Commodore 1571 Drive
In this extensive teardown and inspection video, Hans Campbell gets his hands dirty—literally—with two classic Commodore 1571 drives. Filming straight from his workshop, Hans opens up each unit to determine their condition, with the goal of restoring them for use in his custom-built Commodore 128 setup.
From the moment he removes the first screw, it’s clear these Commodore 1571 drives haven’t lived easy lives. One unit looks like it was stored in a chicken coop. The other? Slightly better but still dusty and heavily used. As Hans disassembles the drives, he shares insightful tips on cleaning and maintaining these vintage units properly—starting with his preference for Shinon mechanisms over Mitsumi or Nutronics, which are notorious for head coil failures.
Drive Mechanics and Cleaning Warnings
Hans outlines the dangers of using alcohol and cotton swabs to clean the read heads, which often leads to irreversible damage. Instead, he insists on proper head-cleaning discs with specialized solutions—a nod to the methods once used by Commodore technicians themselves.
He’s quick to point out differences in drive screws, power supplies, and even eject mechanisms. Through close-up shots, he shows how to safely remove components, identify board revisions (lamenting the absence of a Rev 5 ROM), and prep each drive for recapping. He plans to replace any faulty Nutronics mechanisms with more reliable Shinon alternatives if needed.
What’s Coming Next
This video is part one of a multi-part restoration series. Upcoming episodes will cover deep cleaning the drive cases, recapping both the controller boards and internal switching power supplies, and reassembling and testing both units. Hans also plans to share software demos and programming tips for the Commodore 128 later this fall and winter.
