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IBM PS/2 Model 30 8530-021 + ISA CompactFlash Adapter = ???

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Hello all. I've been tinkering with an old IBM PS/2 Model 30 for a while now, playing Tetris and such. I recently came across this 8-bit ISA CompactFlash Adapter, and while it SOUNDS like it should work with my machine, most of the technical jargon and specifications are completely over my head. My hope is to use the adapter to get either an SD card or some other device hooked up as a bootable storage device.

More or less, I just am wondering if the adapter will even work with the IBM, and I was hoping someone with a bit more technical expertise could take a look before I spend any money.

Thanks in advance!
 
Yes.

There may be some software setup / tuning required if you're planning to keep your built in hard disk running as well.
No different to any other PC however.
 
Awesome! I was briefly worried about whether or not the IBM was using ICA or MCA, but after looking at the machine I'm pretty sure it is ICA.

Has anyone used one of the ISA CompactFlash Adapter's before with an IBM PS/2? I'm hopeful I'm not the first person to go down this path.
 
I haven't run any of the Lo-tech adapters in anything, but for a while I was testing and burning in XT-IDEs in my PS/2 Model 30 (I've since sold it to someone on here). They work fine! Definitely go with an IDE DOM or CF card in an adapter as it'll save you having to hack in a Molex power connector, and it'll give the PS/2 power supply a break.

I sold the PS/2 Model 30 a while back with an XT-IDE rev 3 board in it, the rev 4 board will of course work as well.
 
Hey all, I'm back with an update and more questions.

I went ahead and bought the Lo-tech CompactFlash Adapter and I have it set up in my PS/2 Model 30. I have managed to use the adapter to install DOS 4.01 onto a 2 gigabyte CompactFlash card from a set of install floppy disks. I also installed DOS 5.0 onto a 4 gigabyte Microdrive. Everything went fine when installing both from the IBM, but when I went to BOOT from the DOS 4.01 drive, the machine decides to boot into what I believe is IBM Personal Computer BASIC. The DOS 5.0 drive hangs at "Booting to C." I was able to boot both drives via a USB card reader on an old XP laptop, so they are properly set up to boot, but I'm at a loss as far as where I went wrong.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm more than happy to provide additional information if necessary!
 
While a partition and formatting should have taken care of this, it's possible the MBR isn't correct. Boot DOS 5 from floppy with your DOS 5 CF in the system, then run "fdisk /mbr". That will refresh the MBR and it should boot after that.

PS: Don't run DOS 4. It's buggy.
 
Unfortunately the floppy drive I have only supports 720 KB floppy disks. The only DOS 5 boot disks I've found are 1.44 MB, hence why I've been using the 720 KB install disk sets. Is it possible to strip out some of the extra files from a DOS 5 boot disk until it fits on 720 KB, or does it need ALL of the files in order to do a proper setup? Otherwise, I'm still at a loss.
 
Because you have an IBM system, you might want to run PC-DOS anyway, for which there is a 720k set available for download on the web if you search for "IBM PC-DOS 5.00".
 
I've just installed a similar XT-IDE board in my Model 30, and it works fine. Look at the picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PGSt16BjDEfk1aL_h5lCHg62LLyY2l4t/view?usp=sharing

As you can see, there are some switches to configure bios and memory addresses. I've had to try some different addresses to getting it working.

Is the memory card being recognized by XT-IDE bios (like http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a620/carlostex/WP_20150612_003_zpscfg9srpt.jpg?t=1434104462)?

Is the boot partition active (you can see it using fdisk, status, like http://joelinoff.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/img07.png)?
 
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