How to access the OS on an IBM-PC AT?

[johnorun]

I just acquired a working IBM-PC AT 5170 and it boots up to the IBM Basic screen, even though there is a hard drive present.
How do I access the HD operating system?
Do I need to make some kind of DOS start-up disk or what?
I would love the put this machine to work with some games or other software.

Thanks...
-John

 

[Jorg]

It probably lost the settings to recognize the hard drive correctly, or the hard drive is dead.

Yes, a boot disk is the first step. What floppy drives does it have?

Read this: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?t=14830

If its a newer 5170, you might be able to connect a 1.44 mb floppy as boot drive.

 

[johnorun]

It probably lost the settings to recognize the hard drive correctly, or the hard drive is dead.
Yes, a boot disk is the first step. What floppy drives does it have?
If its a newer 5170, you might be able to connect a 1.44 mb floppy as boot drive.

It has a 5 1/4" floppy and a tape drive plus over 2 Mb of memory.
How can I tell if it will accept a 1.44 floppy?

 

[modem7]

How can I tell if it will accept a 1.44 floppy?

It is explained in the 'Read this;' link that Jorg pointed to.
If you don't understand the contents, let us know.

 

[johnorun]

NOTE >>>> I just moved this post to pg 5 of the thread you mentioned, where the same problem is being discussed:

http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?p=97450#post97450

Thanks, Modem!