Vortex Format

The Vortex Format is a standard floppy disc format for 3.5" and 5.25" floppy discs with 80 tracks and two heads. Especially in Germany it is the standard format for external drives. In other countries other formats may have a higher priority.

Characteristics of the Vortex Format:

• 80 tracks
• 2 sides
• 512 byte sector size
• sector numbers 1-9
• 9 sectors (512 byte) per track, so 18 sectors per cylinder
• 2 reserved tracks (equals 1 reserved cylinder)
• 704 KB free per disc

Further it is possible to boot CP/M 2.2 and Plus form this format, when using VDOS or XD-DOS.

DOS / OS supporting the Vortex Format:

• CP/M 2.2 (Dobbertin or Vortex patch)
• CP/M Plus (Dobbertin patch)
• D-DOS (Dobbertin)
• FutureOS (FutureSoft)
• VaraDOS (Executioner)
• VDOS (Vortex)
• File:VDOS decoded TFM.ROM the most recent VDOS, decoded and usable.
• XD-DOS (Dobbertin)
• and some RSX expansions (in RAM, not ROM)