IBM PS/2 Model 30

[coinich]

Well, I've attempted to resurrect an old IBM Personal System/2 Model 30 computer, made in 1987-88 or so. Yeah, I'm bored. Right at the moment, I should have the startup files I need, but I somehow am supposed to put them on a 720kb floppy. Amazingly, I have a few, but every time I attempt to reformat them so I can put the image on, I can only get 713kb of space. I need all 720kb sometimes. Does anyone know of a way to set it up and get the full image on there? Other attempts give me only ~613kb of space, but the computer refuses to load on it. Do I somehow need to give it a boot capability?

The computer seemed to boot without a disk about twice, but I can't reproduce it. It went into some sort of BASIC or Dos mode after some sort of prompt with a floppy icon flashing; I inserted a random boot disk then. Would anyone know how exactly I triggered this mode? I can't get it to run off any floppy disk at all, even the one that worked those two times.

 

[Neodude1123201]

Take a look at THIS Website and look for the MS-DOS 3.21 Boot Disk,download that and then download THIS to extract it onto a 720kb floppy disk.

Once you have done that and its all on the floppy disk,you have the correct floppy disk! Put the floppy in the computer and turn her on,you should be able to use DOS now.

Does this PC have a Hardrive?

 

[coinich]

Thanks for the help.

I tried, and it didn't work. At least, I can't get the floppy drive to do anything. Further searching says that its booting this BASIC from ROM, and it does this if no other drives are working. I'm guessing something's wrong with the floppy drive connection, or the drive itself?

It has a hard drive, but the only way I can do anything with the computer is if I remove it. It promps me for a floppy then, but doesn't seem to read it, and goes to IBM Basic 1.1 with a crappy menu below. Still trying to manage that thing...

 

[Neodude1123201]

Yeah i think it may be the floppy drive then,have you checked the inside connections and the cable (From the motherboard to the floppy drive?)?