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PS/2 Model 30 Hard drive issues

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k2x4b524[

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Got my second model 30 fired up today, the floppy drive is shot, i'll try a good cleaning, but for now it's got the replacement i found in a recycle bin under scads of cd roms working merrily, but the hard drive, it's been trying to format for the past 2 hours. NDD won't touch it, spinrite 2 chokes and says it can't low level it, spinrite 5 hangs during the memory tests. The diags disk does a low level, but says the defect count is too high and it needs replacing. Anyway to revive this drive? It's the Western Digital 20mb made for ibm. Is there anyway to modify an old mfm or xt style ide to work in this sucker? can i disable the onboard hard drive controller and add my own? or am i fubared?
 
I think you're fubared (well, the drive is) ;-)

Sounds like the same problems I have with my Model 50, and that one also uses a 20MB drive (Type 30, the Model 30 uses a Type 13 I think). I'm trying to find a replacement for my Model 50 for a couple of weeks now but to no avail (unless I cough up 200 USD, that is). I also have a Model 30 286 and that harddrive is OK, had a few bad sectors but after a low level format with the IBM Advanced disk that came with it they were gone.

Mine also had the disk drive dead, but it turned out to be the "cap problem" as it was a Mitsubishi drive... it was fixed with 20 minutes of careful soldering :) So my Model 30 is working now, but unfortunately my Model 50 is not... no harddrive to be found and it's not the same one as the Model 30 (286), since the DBA connector is wider on the 50.

I was thinking that maybe if you can find the "normal" MFM drive for this thing you can swap PCBs (the Model 50 uses a WD-325N drive). My Model 30 uses a WD-325Q but it's a different Type (I think 13) so I don't think in my case I can swap the 325N PCB onto the 325Q...

The Model 30 is an ISA machine though, so you could try to get another harddrive in. Maybe on some old SCSI controller. But I don't know if you can remove or disable the integrated controller and the machine would boot from another harddrive (somehow the Models 56sx/slc and 65 etc are a lot easier).

Hope it helps...
 
I have a model 30-286 and its hard drive died some years ago. Now I use a XTIDE controller and it works like a charm.

The spinrite 5 hang is very strange, are you using an older DOS version? I think it doesn't work with DOS < 4.0
 
My IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 hard disk also was a 20 mb drive, but it was a WDL-320
 
Well, I also have someone who has a Seagate ST-151L that came from a Model 30. I guess there were some different models used in the Model 30 (and maybe the 50 as well?). Anyone know what other models were used in the Model 50? My Model 30 and Model 50 drives look the same, but the edge connector of the Model 50 is a bit wider, they should be 20MB MFM right? Or is the WD-325N an ESDI drive (it would explain the wider connector).
 
Denniske1976 said:
Well, I also have someone who has a Seagate ST-151L that came from a Model 30. I guess there were some different models used in the Model 30 (and maybe the 50 as well?).
Click to expand...

The PS/2 model 30 and 30-286 used proprietary IDE-XT hard drives. My 30-286 had a 20 MB Seagate ST-125L drive in it. The ST-151L is the 40 MB version.
 
I am in the same situation as you, except this is with my Model 50 with an IBM Wd-325N hard drive. And I have the problem with the IBM utility telling about too many bad sectors. So far, I've got it to boot from a floppy disk and access the hard drive. I can SYS C: the drive and copy Command.com, but it'll never boot from the drive.

I think I had to format the drive running WDFMTP or Speedstor multiple times to get it to the point I'm at now. I wish there was a way to put a regular MFM hard drive in these IBM machines.
 
DOS lives on!! said:
I am in the same situation as you, except this is with my Model 50 with an IBM Wd-325N hard drive... ...I wish there was a way to put a regular MFM hard drive in these IBM machines.
Click to expand...

The Model 50/50Z has an unique (compared to the other PS/2 models with proprietary drives) method for getting around that problem: Pull the drive and drive riser, and replace it with either a short SCSI or IDE 16-bit microchannel adapter. There are several that will work, a couple even specifically designed for it: http://ibmmuseum.com/ohlandl/8550/8550_Procom_Pira.html (for SCSI, something like the "Patriot" or similar Future Domain boards: http://ibmmuseum.com/ohlandl/SCSI/MCS.html#MCS-600_700). Something still should be available on eBay and such.
 
Do you know guys if is it possible to make an adapter for this proprietary hard drive interface and use a CompactFlash card working in 8 bit mode instead?
 
Well, thanks for that. The hard drive works fine now, except that the computer won't boot from it. But putting an IDE or SCSI drive in it will prove to be much easier.
 
If i could use an XT-IDE controller in it with an ide drive i would, but i need to know how to disable the onboard mfm controller for the WDQ Drive, this drive is toast, it's taken spinrite 2 more than 10 hours to do a surface scan on it, and it just finds more and more bad sectors, now it's up top 3mb in bad sectors from 1.2mb. If a drive is source-able to for this thing, that'd be awesome. If anyone's got any viable ideas to get around this, that'd be awesome. Ive even got a TMC-850 that wont boot in a pc but it may boot in the model 30, i'll try that too. But how does one power the drive short of using a pluscard 20 *i've got one of those too* or the hard card from my tandy 1000-tl?
 
Are you absolutely sure it's an MFM drive, becauce I'm not. But if it is you'd be in luck 'cause you don't need to disable an MFM controller too use an IDE controller with it. They run fine side-by-side -- I do it, so can you. :) BTW, I still have those two WDQ drives I mentioned in a previous post.
 
well the rom address @ F000H, spinrite 2 is smart enough to tell that one, so even if the drive isn't an mfm, one could still run another controller in it, but disabling it would be a much better option because that gives you that address range to play with, and maybe even free up an irq. I pulled the WDQ from my second model 30 and it seems to be testing ok, but i still need a replacement, or a solution. I've found a couple places that also have the drive for sale. Would 20.00 be a fair price for such a drive that is new old stock or refurbished?

Good News, I've also found my V-30 for this sucker, so i may just put in my ast sixpack premium and use this for my super pc
 
I got a Model 30 with a WDL-325Q hard drive that reports read error on all tracks on Head 3. Does it mean that the head is dead or can it be a electrical (and repairable) problem?
 
nestor said:
I got a Model 30 with a WDL-325Q hard drive that reports read error on all tracks on Head 3. Does it mean that the head is dead or can it be a electrical (and repairable) problem?
Click to expand...
On early MFM drives (e.g. ST-412, ST-225), the various signals to/from each head travel on a ribbon cable that runs between the circuit card and the Hard Disk Assembly (HDA). On such drives, head selection is done on the circuit card, and so the failure of certain components on the circuit card can cause what appears to be failure of a head.

I don't know if the WDL-325Q is in that category. If I had to bet one way or the other, I would say, yes.
 
That would tell me that the drive isn't selecting the head properly, the head itself may have gotten damaged somehow, or the controller doesn't know what to do with head 3 anymore, but it could also be you just got a bad platter. THAT would suck...
 
Found this thread on PS2-M30 drives

so coming back as I try to bring my beloved 8530-021 fully back to life

Spinrite says I have 2 surface defects in Track 0 on the WDI-325Q 72X7568
(612cyl 17SPT and 4Heads - 20MB - MFM uses a 44pin custom IBM connector.)

I cant find a WDI-325Q locally in Britain but I found a WDL-320 IBM part# 6128235

Anyone know if the WDL-320 can be used in the PS2-M30 ?

Also found out about a WD-325N which may have been in Ps2-M50 which I guess has a different electrical interface and probably isnt supported by the M30 BIOS - right ?
 
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