Making disk images for a IBM 5150

[litterbox99]

I'm working on a 5150 for a friend. It has 64k, monochrome monitor
and two 5 1/4" drives. The unit works, but we want to test the drives
and make it useable. Perhaps run a few simple games or app's and save
some basic programs to disk.

What can I expect for hardware and software to make these images to floppy ?

I have a few PC's that will boot to DOS 6.22, but I don't have any
5 1/4" drives. What drive could I buy that would format a 160k disk
with the proper format commands or image program ?

This image 'hardware system' should be compatible with any ShareWare
software images that may have been archived from the past.

Back in the day, I'd just dial up @ 1200 on my USR and get what I wanted ;-)

 

[krebizfan]

You should buy a double-sided double density 5.25" drive (aka 360 kB drive). The disk image should be for a single sided layout and when you run the imaging software the correct disk should be created. You could buy a single sided drive but that will cost more and won't be much use if you need to handle any double sided disks which were used by XT and later production 5150.

If that would take too long, you could remove a drive from the 5150, install it in one of the newer systems, and use that drive. It obviously will create disks that will work in the drive after you place it back in the 5150.

 

[SomeGuy]

Be sure to avoid 1.2mb high-density 5.25" drives for this. 160/180/320/360k low-density disks created in a 1.2mb drive can not always be reliably read in a low density drive.

Also, on your newer computer check the BIOS to see if it can handle two floppy drives. If so, and you have physical space and the cable (with card-edge for B ) for it, just plop a 360k drive in your newer computer. DOS 6.22 and numerous other DOS utilities can format blank 160k disks just fine. (Are you sure the drives in the 5150 are really single sided?)

 

[MikeS]

...Back in the day, I'd just dial up @ 1200 on my USR and get what I wanted ;-)

No reason you can't do that today...