I think the easiest way is to install the mfm adapter and drive into a
working pc.  The drive specs for heads cylinders, etc should be available
somewhere on the web.  Then you could pull off the customer's data.  The
Model 30 will accept a 1.44 diskette drive, but aren't you going to have to
enter setup to configure that?  I can't remember much about the model 30.
Is the FDD vertically mounted?  I remember one model where the diskette was
inserted so that the label faced the opposite way from what you would have
expected given the location of the eject button.  That was a vertically
mounted drive.
I'm confused by what you intended with the junk IDE ISA card.  I was
thinking of putting an ide card into the model 30, but you still have the
boot order problem.  I'm fairly certain the mfm will still be first in line
to boot, because mfm standard had the drives hard coded by channel.  The
first channel was C: and the second was D:.  Any other drives I have ever
tried to install came after the existing mfm drives last letter, meaning
they won't boot the pc.
Tom Turak


-----Original Message-----
From: RobertBHemming-Verizon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 2:24 PM

I occasionally rehab old PC's for a charity organization I am affiliated
with, so that low income families can have limted access to the Internet.
And so the kids can do their homework on a PC.

A customer brought in an IBM PS/2 Model 30 with an ancient MFM hard drive,
30 MB or so, you know the antique with the two cables to the drive.  It
won't boot so I went to Google and found some PS/2 web sites and eventually
downloaded the image for the start disk.

I also eventually found a one hole 3-1/2 inch floppy (capacity 720 KB) in my
junk box and transferred the image so I can fire the PS/2 up and copy the
programs and data off with Lap Link, so I can transfer it to the "new" PC I
am going to replace it with.

My customer had conencted up to the printer port, a printer that was turned
on, an old HP 540 inkjet, so I think maybe he fried something, cuz he said
it crashed after that and it won't boot.

Problem is, I can't figure out how to put the floppy in.  Is this one of
those machines, like the old Apple, that sort of semi automated the floppy
insertion process, you kinda start it in and then the drive grabs it?  Or is
the floppy fried also.  I just can not mechanically insert the floppy disk.
And I don't want to force it.  Shucks, you can't force it, it just won't go
in!

Is there some way I can hook up a 1.4 MB floppy to the drive cable or am I
stuck with ancient history tech?  I am tempted to just take one of my junk
IDE-HDD ISA cards from the old days, that I got when IDE drives first came
out, and install it a newer machine and just copy the drive, but I would
like to fire up the old IBM if possible.  I really don't want to go through
the gyrations of turning off lots of switches for IDE selection in the CMOS,
unless I absolutely have to.

I think the PS/2 is a write off, but I don't give up too easily.  I always
like to look at a machine in its native state, if possible.

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