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Help! Seeking old computer to write 360Kb floppy disks

B

bettablue

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
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Location
Eugene, OR
As the title of my post explains, I need an old computer (486, Pentium 1) to write floppy disks for my vintage IBM systems. I don't really care what brand, as long as it will fit my needs and works. I'm really looking for something cheap with a minimum or Windows 3.1. Windows 95B or Win 98 would be better though. (Nothing higher than Win 98SE please)

It MUST meet the following requirements: :geek:

2 - 5 1/4" drive bays
a 5.25" 360 K floppy drive, or at least the ability to add one. If I can't add a 5.25" 360 floppy drive, it won't work for my needs.
CD ROM drive (anything at least 4X)
The ability to install a 4 port USB card using an available PCI slot.
Video adapter capable of at least 640X480 at 16 bit color.
16 Megs of RAM would be nice, but having less is not a deal breaker. It should be able to run Windows 95 without thrashing the hard drive though.
Minimum 512 Meg har drive; 1 or 2 Gigs will be plenty.

The computer will need both ISA and PCI expansion slots due to the nature of it's intended use. An old 486 would be perfect for my needs, as long as it works. I expect that once I have this computer running and configured, it will be used quite extensively to write floppy disks for my IBM 5150 PCs, so it doesn't have to connect to the Internet either, or be a super vintage gaming system. The inclusion of an original keyboard and mouse would again, be a plus, but not a deal breaker.

If someone has a computer that fits my needs, please contact me. I will also accept referrals to one on E-Bay too, if you happen to see one.

Thanks for reading. :cool:
 
Just saw this... replied to your other mention in PCs and Clones, but Erik has a 486 up on the marketplace that should meet all of your needs except for the HD and USB.

Not sure what you're wanting USB for (it's helpful for file transfers, but certainly far from needed given that you're probably going to run Win95/98 and have a NIC in there), but if you can pass that requirement, that little system should meet all of your needs quite nicely. And be relatively cheap, considering that you're both in CA (so shipping shouldnt be killer)
 
How about a Pentium-S 133 w/ 64Mb of RAM. The motherboard has 3 ISA and 4 PCI and works with both 72pin SIMMS (4) and PC-66 Dimms (3).

It is this motherboard

The case it is in is a fairly standard ATX case with 4 external 5 1/4" drive bays, 2 external 3 1/2" bays and 1 internal 3 1/2" bay. It is, however, quite yellowed and not very nice looking, but is quite a bit lighter than most of the other cases I have.

If you are interested I'd recommend just buying the board/RAM/CPU from me, then getting a cheep ATX case either from Ebay or locally. I am pretty sure I have a 360kb drive I can add and possibly a CD-Rom .

Also, I'll finally get back to you on that 5150 manual we were talking about a while ago... ;D

PM me if you are interested.
 
Hey Mav, Las Vegas is almost in CA. :)

And, FWIW, when you're shipping a PS and case there is no really cheap shipping since both size and weight enter into the equation.
 
Stone said:
And, FWIW, when you're shipping a PS and case there is no really cheap shipping since both size and weight enter into the equation.
Click to expand...

True, but there are ways around some of the restrictions/requirements. I've found that often, having just the weight on a shipping label is enough and UPS will accept the package. That being said, I actually only paid $43 and some change to ship a fully loaded IBM XT from MA to Las vegas by ground. Not bad, considering that shipping using dimensional weight the cost would have been $83.00 for the same package. I processed my own return label so the shipper only had to give the package to a UPS driver, or drop it off at a UPS Store. There were never any corrections, or additional fees associated when the bill arrived. The main thing you have to make sure of is that the packages actual weight is not more than what you enter on the shipping screens using UPS's web site or their WorldShip shipping program. If you ship a package that weighs 26 pounds, and only put 15 or 20 pounds, UPS will correct the weight and add demensions, UPS will then add correction fees of up to $25.00 too. I've never had any issues though when I over rate the weight by a pound or two.
 
Thanks to everyone who offered up computer systems. I wanted to let you all know that I was able to get one locally, which is saving me a bunch of money. The computer is currently running DOS 6.22, has a CD ROM drive, a 1.44 Me 3.5, 5.25" 360 K floppy dives, AND USB support. I didn't now you could get USB working in DOS, but evidently the guy who is giving me this computer got the ports working. It's also got 16 Megs of RAM, a 4 Gig hard disk separated into 2 partitions, and enough expansion bays to install another 5.25" drive if I need to.

Is there a DOS based program to convert img disk images back to floppy? What about going from DSK disk images to floppy for a Tandy COCO. I have looked and couldn't find one for DOS. All of the programs I have found are for Windows, or Linux.
 
Stone said:
Hey Mav, Las Vegas is almost in CA. :)

And, FWIW, when you're shipping a PS and case there is no really cheap shipping since both size and weight enter into the equation.
Click to expand...

DOH!

Exactly what I get for skimming rather than reading and comprehending!! :) Sorry, guys :)

bettablue said:
Is there a DOS based program to convert img disk images back to floppy? What about going from DSK disk images to floppy for a Tandy COCO. I have looked and couldn't find one for DOS. All of the programs I have found are for Windows, or Linux.
Click to expand...

This intrigued me... I've a 512kb CoCo 3 with a functioning disk drive, but haven't started trying to get software for it. Went onto Google and hit a site I'd forgotten about... Omniflop. It should do what you need. It requires Win2000/XP/Vista/7, however.

Mental note to look further into this. Has anyone here used it? Any feedback?
 
Last edited:
Ole Juul said:
I just put a little collection of them here: http://cgs.coalmont.net/imageutl.zip for you.
Click to expand...

You should add this to the toolkit:

http://brutman.com/PCjr/downloads/DskImage.zip

It's just another generic disk imager that works on raw sectors, so it is compatible with the others. However, I put in a feature to control the number of retry attempts that it makes on a bad sector. Having more retries helps on marginal diskettes that you are trying to image, and I needed that feature for some of my diskettes which were 20 to 25 years old at the time.


Mike
 
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