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IBM ps2/30 hard drive replacement

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VintageVic

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
341
Location
Finland
Spent several hours examining my IBM ps2/model 30 and
came to a conclusion, that unfortunately, the hard drive is busted.

Initially I thought it was a 286, but it seems to be 086 instead.
The floppy is 720kb. That took me a while to realize and to find suitable DD discs
and to find boot disc image from the internet. But I did that, and got it to boot to dos.

Computer even recognized the hard drive at first. It is a 20Mb IBM hard drive.
At first, I was able to browse a few directories. On some I could get result to DIR command.
From some directories, it was not possible, but resulted read errors. Also, copying file from HD to disc
gave read errors.

I decided to format the drive, so I removed the partition with Fdisk and created a new one.
Unfortunately, format will not begin at cylinder 0 - gets stuck there immediately and says
track 0 bad - disk unusable.

The drive also gives bad sounds (from bearings or somewhere). This computer has also spent decades
in cold storage and that is a good guess why the HD has crashed.

Now, for a replacement, has anyone tried IDE drive to IBM ps2 ?
Or MFM drive? I have both, 100mb IDE and I'm guessing 40Mb MFM drives, but
no controller card for either. I do not know if either would work, so I'm hesitating
to buy either. The problem with those might be how to access bios and IBM hard drives
might be very hard to find nowadays.

Then there is the possibility for IDE-CF adapters, but I'm wondering if those have the
same issue on how to assign it correctly in bios.

Perhaps the safest bet is to try IDE to CF card adapter with this one.
 
I would avoid getting another of those IBM drives to replace it. They are notoriously bad at this point in time and are no longer reliable. You might need to go through five or ten of them until you found one that works and even then it probably wouldn't work for very long. Some other alternative would seem to be the best idea.
 
The HD in my Model 30 286 was kind of like that, sometimes it would show up and work and sometimes not, and it would give errors reading. I had to recap the logic board on the HD and it was 100% reliable after that.
 
however, in my case, I am hearing quite bad sounds, assumably from the bearings,
that really make me suspect it is not recoverable. How did your caps look like before replacing ?
Any visible defects?

It turns out, I did find IDE io card from my possession!
I just might try it out, although I doubt I can set it up correctly as the bios probably will not support it.
 
Heh, after having a look at this, there is an additional problem.
I cannot find any power cables for old IDE hard drive. Brilliant,
how they did it their own way at the IBM, back in the days of IBM ps2 !

Also, there are only 8bit ISA slots (and then, not too many of them either).
The IO card is 16 bit that I have.

Well, then. Seems, that there are very few options for this one.
 
VintageVic said:
Heh, after having a look at this, there is an additional problem.
I cannot find any power cables for old IDE hard drive. Brilliant,
how they did it their own way at the IBM, back in the days of IBM ps2 !

Also, there are only 8bit ISA slots (and then, not too many of them either).
The IO card is 16 bit that I have.

Well, then. Seems, that there are very few options for this one.
Click to expand...

You could run Advanced Diagnostics to get a better idea:
http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/8530/8530-286_Planar.html
http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/8530/30start.exe
http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/8530/adv30dig.exe
 
I have an XT-IDE in mine, with a 32MB DoM on it... works a charm, however mine is a model 30 286.

I do have two working HDD's for that model, WD-325Q drives. No bad sectors, installed with IBM PC-DOS 5.0 and drive heads parked... but I switched to the XT-IDE in mine since it's a Model 30/286 that came with a 30MB harddisk and those are impossible to find. But the XT-IDE works flawless so you could try that (I soldered mine myself from a kit, connected the HD LED from the front to the XT-IDE card so apart from not making any sound you can't tell there's no harddisk in it).
 
VintageVic said:
How did your caps look like before replacing ?
Any visible defects?
Click to expand...

I can answer that as I have a model 30 as well that uses the same drive.
The boards use a cluster of SMD's near the edge connector that show the typical signs of leakage but further inward IBM used miniature through-hole radials that are visibly good and not leaking but read with terrible ESR.

My drive would respond fine on advanced diagnostics until you tried a read or write operation, then puke. A capacitor replacement cleared that.
 
I've heard that capacitors are becoming an issue, but haven't experienced it myself on hard disks. Definitely a problem on PS/2 floppy drives. As NeXT said, check that before anything else.

If you do end up replacing the drive, XT-IDEs work fine in the PS/2 Model 30 (and 30/286, for that matter). I don't have kits listed at the moment but I'm in the process of getting more together -- too busy with work and the new building and holidays!
 
glitch said:
I've heard that capacitors are becoming an issue, but haven't experienced it myself on hard disks. Definitely a problem on PS/2 floppy drives. As NeXT said, check that before anything else.
Click to expand...

I've been running into issues with the miniature radials now for about five years. Most people don't suspect them as much because the SMD's are now direct culprits but just before SMD technology really got off the ground they were just as common in the same circuits and they are all now well past their MTBF. I've also dealt with their problems in products as new as the Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS. Never pass them off as okay unless they pass testing.
 
The IBM WDL-330 hard drives in the PS/2 Models 25, 25-286, 30, 30-286, IBM PS/1 model 2011, and IBM/Sega TeraDrive are known for bad surface-mount electrolytic capacitors:

 
Denniske1976 said:
Yes, that WDL-330R is the one for that model I think... but will it survive shipping and is it still good? Waddayawannahaveforit?
Click to expand...

PM me and let's haggle. I'm not wanting much, just offering up my parts bin to clear room for more. ;) The postage would be more, I expect.
 
the IBM PS/2 Model 30 came in two variants, the early model that came out in 1987 with an 8086 CPU, 640k of ram (128k on planer board & 2 256k simms) & a soldered battery on the expansion riser (eeewwww) which is the machine you have. it has an 8 bit expansion bus with 8bit ISA slots. they came with dual floppy drives as standard or an optional 20mb hard drive using a proprietary 8bit IDE like (XTA) interface. The floppy drives and hard drives do not have separate power connections, power is routed through the ribbon cable.
2QCtz5Nl.jpg


the later PS/2 Model 30 286 came out later, has a 10mhz 286 CPU and 4 sims slots that accept up to 4mb of memory (1mb standard?) & a dallas RTC module.the 286 version came standard with a 20mb hard drive using the same proprietary interface as the older model, but a 30mb drive was optional. the 286 system also included a 16bit expansion bus.

There are two annoying issues when trying to replace the stock hard drive. #1 the lack of any Molex power connector. this can either be hacked in, or you can use something like a Hard card (which draws power from the ISA slot) or an XT-CF (probably the best option)

#2 the bios. whatever hard drive card you install has to contain its own bios, as the PS/2 Model 30 bios has no way to "set up" the drive. its like an XT PC in this respect. something like an old MFM controller, or in my case a WD FILECARD with an XTA (8 bit IDE) controller is required.

the other option is to use an XT-CF (or any card) with the XT IDE universal bios. in the 286 machines the XT universal bios can be put in a boot rom socket of a network card and used with a standard 16bit ISA IDE controller. with the 8bit bus of the 8086 machine you are more limited.

My personal recommendation is the XT CF, compact, convenient, and quiet. not to mention reliable. The stock seagate ST125L and ST138L drives suck, and if they dont have capacitor issues they have mechanical issues. IDK about the WD drives but they probably aren't much better. the 8bit XTA WD drives i have in my tandy hard card and with other 8bit XTA computers just suck and seem to all be dead or dying.

When I first got my machine I had installed a WD filecard as the stock hard drive was missing, I eventually realized the 3.5" WD hard drive would fit in the stock location and the cable on the hard card was long enough to reach both power and data. ugly, but it works. wouldn't really recommend unless (like me) you had an unused hardcard in a box.

ZfjcDHol.jpg
 
pinkdonut666 said:
the 8bit XTA WD drives i have in my tandy hard card and with other 8bit XTA computers just suck and seem to all be dead or dying.
Click to expand...
Try oiling the stepper motor, as shown in the video below. With age the stepper motor in the early Tandon/Western Digital 3.5" hard drives gets sticky and unable to properly seek, causing strange noises, seek errors, bad sector errors, and eventually a failure to properly initialize at power-on, making the drive appear to be totally unusable. But oiling the motor restored the Western Digital IDE-XT hard drive in my Zenith eaZy PC to perfect working condition, and probably could've saved several of these drives I've had in the past but declared to be dead and ultimately discarded.

 
vwestlife said:
Try oiling the stepper motor, as shown in the video below. With age the stepper motor in the early Tandon/Western Digital 3.5" hard drives gets sticky and unable to properly seek, causing strange noises, seek errors, bad sector errors, and eventually a failure to properly initialize at power-on, making the drive appear to be totally unusable.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try this, thanks!
 
Wow,

thanks for the videos Vwestlife! I definitely will try if oiling the bearing
will help. I'll watch the video in the evening about the cap change, if I will find
the right value caps, I'll make order from ebay and go ahead changing them as well.

@pinkdonut666
thanks for the detailed information on ps2 :). You have very nice looking set there.
Mine is old work horse from paper factory, if my memory serves me right.

And I have been tempted to PM you WBST, but on the other hand, like
Pinkdonut recommended, I'm also eager to get my hands on XT-CF.

For now, I am probably just going to stick with what I have and see if I can
do anything to the original hd.
 
VintageVic said:
And I have been tempted to PM you WBST, but on the other hand, like
Pinkdonut recommended, I'm also eager to get my hands on XT-CF.

For now, I am probably just going to stick with what I have and see if I can
do anything to the original hd.
Click to expand...

No worries, it's not likely to go anywhere soon, small as it is. ;)
 
Denniske1976 said:
Yes, that WDL-330R is the one for that model I think...
Click to expand...

unfortunately it isn't. the WDL-330P is. the R uses ESDI and is for a PS/2 Model 50 etc.

Another Drive that IS for the PS/2 Model 25, 30 etc. is Seagate ST-138L 30mb drive. I just picked one up that is doing some, uhhh interesting things... Somehow the system seems to think it has 562cylinders and 51 heads... very odd.
 
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