Talk:Block allocation map

Requested diagram
Someone requested a diagram here. I don't know if the View BAM screenshot is sufficient, but if not, I can create a SVG representation of a block allocation map. Crotalus horridus (TALK ● CONTRIBS) 12:53, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
 * That screenshot is just a user interface and doesn't give the reader an idea of how a BAM is structured. I was thinking about something along the lines of a diagram with labelled boxes and arrows and whatnot. —Psychonaut

BAM on a 4040?
I seem to remember the PET using a 4040 disk drive.

How did the Commodore 4040 keep track of sectors that were allocated?

Did it have a BAM?

How did the 4040 keep track of the BAM? 216.99.198.237 (talk) 01:03, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Plain nonsense ?
In terms of Commodore Business Machines compatible Disk Drives, the BAM was located at a different physical track and sector on each of the Commodore 1541, Commodore 1571, and Commodore 1581 disk drives. What? Why ... DRIVES? I think it's about floppy disks, the media, not the device where they were inserted into! AFAIK the BAM is located on a floppy disk directly (5.25"), not predefined on a floppy drive device. -amigamer 217.50.60.151 (talk) 23:45, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

wrong acronym, possible delete this article
This article originally referred to Commodore disks, but Commodore uses a Block availability map which is a bit different than a block allocation map. As that page now describes the data structure, this page may need to be deleted. However, some systems do use an allocation data structure. In particular both FAT and CP/M. The FAT article describes the allocation structure used fairly well. The CP/M article, on the other hand, is mostly about the operating system and less (if any) about file allocation. So this page may still serve a purpose. However, CP/M literature usually refers to this data structure as "ALV" or allocation vector(s) -- I've never heard the term BAM used with CP/M.Hydradix (talk) 05:29, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for sorting this out. I don't see any reason why this article can't be kept, provided we can come up with some reliable sources for block allocation maps—the relevant FAT and CP/M technical documentation would be a start.  We might also want to mention the CP/M-specific name in the article. —Psychonaut (talk) 08:30, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I removed the acronym BAM from this article and the disambiguation page. It should not be present unless somebody can site a source.  I provided sources relevant to CP/M use of block allocation map.  Digital Research was quite liberal in their documentaion of low-level implemention (BIOS) and high-level access (BDOS arguments), however they were very stingy about implimentation details of BDOS (company secrets).  Thus, this article is short and has few references. Hydradix (talk) 06:47, 7 February 2013 (UTC)