Df0

DF0 is a device designation used in several 1980s-era home computer systems, most notably AmigaOS, to refer to the first floppy disk drive. The name combines the prefix DF, generally standing for disk drive, with the numeric index 0, indicating the first unit. In these systems, drive references use a colon, so the first floppy drive is accessed as DF0:.

In practical use, DF0: acts as a mount point and path for files on the inserted floppy disk. Users refer to objects on the disk as DF0:Directory/File, and commands such as listing, copying, or editing files operate with DF0: as the source or destination. If a disk is not present, the DF0: device exists but contains no files, and operations on it may fail or prompt for a disk to be inserted.

The DF0 designation is most commonly encountered on the Amiga family of computers, but similar naming conventions appeared on other systems of the era, including some Atari-compatible environments, where the first disk drive was represented similarly as DF0:. In modern contexts, DF0: is primarily encountered in emulators or preservation work, where disk images (such as ADF files) are mounted to the DF0: device to reproduce authentic software environments.

Summary: DF0 is the conventional name for the first floppy disk drive in Amiga and related systems, used as a colon-terminated path to access the disk’s contents. It reflects the era’s device naming scheme, where drives were numbered starting at zero and accessed via drive-specific paths.