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HARD01.TXT
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1993-01-27
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Cost Cutter Hardware solutions
Subject: IBM PS/2 models 20, 25, 30
by: Joseph Hochstuhl
The IBM PS/2 series computer is a fine machine, but can
quickly become a pain when attempting to put a non-IBM
Hard Drive into it.
I recently had the dubious honor of upgrading several
older IBM PS/2 Model 25's to IDE Hard Drives. The school
district we were working for was running low on their
funds (aren't all schools?) and needing an affordable way
to upgrade these 6 IBM's that were donated to them.
Of course, the old story when dealing with proprietary
equipment is that you spend an arm and a leg on
components that would be much more cost effective had
they been Industry standard. For a mere 40 megabyte IDE
drive, IBM dealers wanted $ 345.00 for "Genuine IBM
parts". So for all 6 it cost would have been 2,070.00
for parts only.
Now these particular models of IBM's provided no power
take-off cable. The power was supplied thru the bus and
via the ribbon cable which of course, rendered industry
standard drives unusable.
However, like in any other field, there is always more
than one way to skin a cat. A company that resides in
Silicon Valley, California has made a career out of
developing conversion components for proprietory
machines. They have a IDE host adapter card that converts
the older IBM expansion bus into a IDE port and supplies
a 5 pin power take-off from the bus adapter.
And with this adapter you can proceed to install an
Industry Standard Hard drive. Be aware, however, that the
floppy drive controller connection that comes on this
adapter is supplied with the original IBM configuration
(complete with power pins), so DO NOT plug an industry
standard Floppy drive into it. The purpose for this
connection is that there is no way to disable the
controller on that motherboard, so you must run the
original IBM floppy from this port and simply leave the
on-board controller connections not connected. The
adapter's built-in BIOS will take control after the
initial p.o.s.t. fails to find any valid devices on the
regular ports.
In this manner you have taken a job whose parts alone
would have been $ 2,070.00 and converted it to $ 1,092.00.
From here profits are a little bit easier to manage.
These adapter cards are available thru most well informed
Industry Standard dealers, and you'll be asking for an
IBM IDE host adapter W/ floppy & power. They come in both 8
and 16 bit versions.
- J. H.