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IBM p70 questions....

tblake05

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Aug 21, 2017
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Scored this on a local auction last week. Don’t think anyone knew what it was.....

Anyhow,

First looks it is solid, just dirty and a little yellowed.

Have there been any modern solutions for the screen button that breaks in the corner? The latch where you push and it’s supposed to hold. Mine doesn’t hold anymore.

Also, is there any tips or tricks to taking this apart? The hard drive sounds like a freight train. I’d like to have someone (or myself if I can figure out what I’m doing) clone it before it bites the dust for good. Is there a compact flash or the like alternative for these? I’d like to clone the current hard drive on that. A while ago I had someone on here clone a hard drive for me from my toshiba t1900cs. Forgot who it was. (Mike? Maybe..? Are you still around?)

Is this a complex machine to take apart to maybe clean and retro brite the plastics?

Suggestions?

Thanks!

~Tim
 

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I looked at the technical reference and the hard drive looks to have a non-standard connector interface.

If the machine were in my possession I would attach a Xircom parallel-port to Ethernet adapter to it and use some code to copy the drive block-by-block to another machine, creating an image of it. I have that code already but I wrote it as a "one-off" for a Tandy machine, so it's not really safe to expose to unsuspecting users. I would need to know the model of the drive and how the BIOS sees the geometry (Cylinders, heads and Sectors) to modify the code before attempting to image it.


-Mike
 
Some of them had (maybe all I forget) ESDI drives with a card edge connector. Not sure what the ones I owned had in them but I vaguely remember there being a SCSI external connector being inside the access door on back.
 
Did it come preloaded? I have one with no working hard drive as of yet. If thats a factory install, you should make a backup to archive.org. I know I would love a copy (as soon as they make a modern hard drive replacement for MCA hard drives that is).
 
Did it come preloaded? I have one with no working hard drive as of yet. If thats a factory install, you should make a backup to archive.org. I know I would love a copy (as soon as they make a modern hard drive replacement for MCA hard drives that is).
It looks like its original preload. Though I cant get into Windows 3.1 due to missing .dll. I havent messed with it much yet. Too many projects and they keep stacking up.

I've got to get some info to Mike to see if I can dump the HD. If I can, I'll definitely upload it.

~Tim
 
Im sure the folks here can help you find the .dll files you need if you start another post for it.
Why another post prey tell? A lot of us at vcfed have perfectly functioning systems (I have a 286/16 and 486 system right next to me for example) we can get the *.dll file off and attach in this thread easy enough.
 
Why another post prey tell? A lot of us at vcfed have perfectly functioning systems (I have a 286/16 and 486 system right next to me for example) we can get the *.dll file off and attach in this thread easy enough.
Because if I remember windows 3.1 correctly, it usually says it is missing one .dll. Once you locate that one, it’s missing another, and another.

I’ll maybe boot it up again tomorrow and report back. I know the HD is running on borrowed time judging by its sound. So if I could extract its contents over serial before it bites the dust, that would be great.
 
Because if I remember windows 3.1 correctly, it usually says it is missing one .dll. Once you locate that one, it’s missing another, and another.

I’ll maybe boot it up again tomorrow and report back. I know the HD is running on borrowed time judging by its sound. So if I could extract its contents over serial before it bites the dust, that would be great.
Not necessarily. Just one *.dll could be corrupt.

If your hdd if fucked9on it's way out) you are going get errors in the software no matter what you do.
 
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I looked at the technical reference and the hard drive looks to have a non-standard connector interface.

If the machine were in my possession I would attach a Xircom parallel-port to Ethernet adapter to it and use some code to copy the drive block-by-block to another machine, creating an image of it. I have that code already but I wrote it as a "one-off" for a Tandy machine, so it's not really safe to expose to unsuspecting users. I would need to know the model of the drive and how the BIOS sees the geometry (Cylinders, heads and Sectors) to modify the code before attempting to image it.


-Mike

Mike, here is a picture of the top of the hard drive...

C34F514A-E647-4629-AED5-41A22A6C2CA7.jpeg

Though how do I access the BIOS on this machine to check cylinders heads and tracks?

Thanks!
 
IIRC that is a 50 pin SCSI that has IBM's card edge instead of the normal 50 pin header style connector. You shouldn't have to know the heads/cyl/sectors as far as I remember. There is no normal bios you need the setup/diagnostic disk to get info on what it has but I can't remember if it will show the speciics of the drive
 
The drive is "direct bus attachment", same as used in the PS/2 Model 50z and Model 70. Basically a MicroChannel version of IDE. The reference disk should automatically detect and configure the drive geometry.

 
And for your viewing pleasure. This is what it sounds like when booting up..... hopefully with Mike’s help I can extract the data before it dies completely.

The machine must have been some industrial use or something, I can’t believe the dirt that came from it when I took the back off.

 
If it is a SCSI drive then you have a lot of options, including ones for replacing it.

That's really supposed to be an ESDI drive. The model number doesn't generate a lot of hits on Google, so the specs won't be found by casual online searching. Can you remove it temporarily and show us the connector and circuit board?
 
If it is a SCSI drive then you have a lot of options, including ones for replacing it.

That's really supposed to be an ESDI drive. The model number doesn't generate a lot of hits on Google, so the specs won't be found by casual online searching. Can you remove it temporarily and show us the connector and circuit board?
It probably is ESDI. The S on the WD part number probably sparked thought of it being SCSI and dusty old memory of having a P70 back in 2005 or so had me thinking the connector above the drive was a SCSI connector when it is an external diskette connection. I just perused the technican reference and no mention of SCSI. I have gobs of edge connector drives in storage, getting to them is another story, testing them at this point is pretty much not happening since the only PS2 machine I have anymore is a 9595 that hasn't been powered since about 2010. At one time I probably had 200 varying PS2 machines that were destined for scrap from a group I worked with that took commercial donations and reworked machines that would be suitable for everyday people to use and they determined that the PS2 line was not worthy of fixing and passing along to non-technical people.
 
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