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IMB PS/2 P70 won't boot from floppy

justinadams

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Jul 11, 2011
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i recently recieved from my work an old IBM PS/2 P70 computer. it was originally running ms-dos, and as company policy states(since i'm in the IT department) i have to wipe the hard drive. so i did. now it wont boot (obviously) i then decided i was going to add a clean version of ms-dos 6.2. but every floppy i've setup won't boot. i've tried a do floppy that will boot on other systems, i've tried the reference disk and that won't work, i've also tried QBMCA. none of which work. all i get is an error saying that (to the effect of) there is no valid boot device. when it is starting up the floppy spins up like it's going to read. any help would be much appreciated.
 
...as company policy states(since i'm in the IT department) i have to wipe the hard drive. so i did...

Prudent, but overkill at this point because someone would need an IBM system with the proprietary DBA ESDI interface to read it now...

The P70 floppy drive has a worse reputation than even other PS/2 floppy drives. Don't pull the battery - You still have a good system configuration by what it sounds like (the drive would have been good the last time a Reference Diskette was needed). There really isn't any way you can push an OS through the COM or LPT port, you might be best finding a 1.44Mb (or 2.88Mb) IBM floppy drive from another model to frankenstein in for long enough.
 
Well at least your turns on. Mine won't unless I threaten it alot.:p Have a flakey connection to the motherboard. But sorry for going off kilter. Looks like as IBMMuseum said you need to get a replacement floppy drive. The Early PS/2's were notorious for having iffy drives. This person has a couple of drives. Not meaning to plug but the 2.88 is cheaper and it's what I have in mine. Although it will only be recognized as a 1.44.
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-PS-2-2-88-F...339?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b36e13a3
Trust me it will work if his drive is good. Oh and please give your location if possible.
 
...Not meaning to plug but the 2.88 is cheaper and it's what I have in mine. Although it will only be recognized as a 1.44...

It's a good substitute, the 2.88Mb models had a dustshield and I've not heard of the same issues with them...
 
Yeah the P70 has that drive running vertical and there is no dust shield on it. Kind of like laying on your back with your mouth open. No telling what will land inside ;) And when it's in the open position dust and dirt can just fall right into the drive messing up the heads etc. So it might be hopefully dirty heads, so try cleaning them first.
 
so the 2.88 works in the p70? interesting

It should as a 1.44Mb drive...

I tested the P70 big brother (P75) with a 2.88Mb drive, mostly because it had an FDC (82077AA) that should have been 2.88Mb-capable. It just ran as 1.44Mb. The "Hosiden" connector among the ports is for a 4869 external floppy drive, but it needs a cable adapter and can't be set as a boot drive.
 
Does it have a LAN card? We used to boot them off the network as diskless workstations - Token Ring as I recall - for a securities application at the bank I was working at. This was like 1989 or so. You might beable to do the same if you have a server and an ethernet card with a boot chip.
 
Does it have a LAN card? We used to boot them off the network as diskless workstations - Token Ring as I recall - for a securities application at the bank I was working at. This was like 1989 or so. You might beable to do the same if you have a server and an ethernet card with a boot chip.

It would have to be lucky chance to RIPL over a network with everything in place already - Otherwise a PS/2 Catch-22 results:

To add a microchannel NIC at this point, he has to run the Reference Diskette...
 
It would have to be lucky chance to RIPL over a network with everything in place already - Otherwise a PS/2 Catch-22 results:

To add a microchannel NIC at this point, he has to run the Reference Diskette...

Verry true. I thought since the Model 70 came from a business it might have a LAN card installed with a RIPLE chip.

IBM made an adapter for the 40 edgeconnecter to a standard 34 IDE pin for installing an Irwin tape drive. The adpater can be used with a standard loppy drive. Info here:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/fdadapt.html

At this point a Frankenstine approach is about all you can do.

Don't toss the floppy drive just yet. Most failures for the PS/2 floppy are due to a bad capacitor or two and can be repaired.

http://mypage.intergate.ca/~fspencer/FD_144_01.htm

http://mypage.intergate.ca/~fspencer/8580d144.htm
 
Opps! Didn't see the 'P' - all along I thought we were talking about the PS/2 Model 70 desktop - a favorite of mine. My bad. Sorry!
 
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