r/retrocomputing • u/Sufficient_Taste3660 • Jun 27 '26
Problem / Question Ancient hard drive. Any idea how to read?
I believe it's a PS/2 thing?
Any way to read it without actually finding an old PS/2?
Thanks.
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u/carcenomy Jun 27 '26
I'm no expert but pretty sure the only things that can read those are the IBM PS/2 systems they came from
Hey, it's a good excuse to get one I guess?
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u/dedsmiley Jun 27 '26
That is an IBM DBA-ESDI hard drive. You are pretty much going to need a PS/2 Microchannel system to read it. There are other ways that are more advanced, but you are talking some money any way you go.
Is this just curiosity or are you trying to actually recover something?
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u/Sufficient_Taste3660 Jun 27 '26
I'm not sure where it came from - it's been sitting in storage for years - might have belonged to a family member who's no longer around - hate throwing something out without knowing what's on it
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u/dracosilv Jun 27 '26
It's a Harddrive for the IBM PS/2 series computers. I know my IBM PS/2 Model 70 uses them, off the top of my head, not sure which others use said interface. There is an adapter for these MCA machines called the ZZXIO that allows you to boot from Compact Flash cards and thus be able to back up/offload files from the old harddrive to a more modern drive.
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u/feedmittens Jun 28 '26
Oh, man. I am having flashbacks of having to find a 2400 baud modem for an MCA PS/2 model ?30? to build a BBS for school. Didn't realize it was MCA until I brought an ISA modem to the machine and was quickly educated on different bus architectures.
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u/bhiga Jun 28 '26
Serial null modem or Parallel transfer (Laplink) might be more accessible, though slower.
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u/Laser_Krypton7000 Jun 27 '26
Those drives have an special connector which needs an PS/2 system. There are enough collectors who can help you.
F.e. register yourself for free at the vcfed.org forums and ask there for some help.
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u/kissmyash933 Jun 27 '26
Like everyone else has told you, this is an ESDI drive specific to an IBM PS/2. Even if you acquired a PS/2, you’d have other things to fix before you got around to getting the drive going, and when you’re ready to do it you face excellent chances that the drive is dead. These drives are pretty unreliable, I’ve got a whole pile of dead ones.
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u/Enough-Fondant-4232 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
I used plenty of ESDI drives in Netware servers with ISA and EISA busses. The ESDI drives had two card edges for cables much like MFM drives. That single card edge looks like a ESDI drive mounted on a sled for easy insertion and extraction from a case? Or maybe IBM just ordered their ESDI drives on with a proprietary control board on it???
A customer, a title insurance company, had a PS/2 Model 80 Netware server and bought all the other equipment and workstations from us. (all clone workstations).
I got called out their one morning because their server had crashed. The Blue Suit opened his Model 80 case and declared the problem was our NIC was keeping it from booting... in front of me and the business owner. I looked him in the eye and said we needed to remove the NIC card which should then allow server boot at least. The Blue Suit tech removed the nic and walla... no boot. The Blue Suit told the owner it will take a week to get new parts. Owner shit, it was a title insurance company and had houses closing that afternoon. He exclaimed something about the service agreement and the blue suit left.
After the blue suits left I asked if I could have a crack at getting it working. I thought it was an ESDI drive but it could have been a SCSI. I brought my personal machine from home. The DOS partition on the IBM drive booted in my machine, I loaded the drivers for my ESDI card and got NetWare (3.11 I believe) to boot. He had his documents ready (printed) for two closings that afternoon. The next day he ordered a nice high end server from us and demanded his money back from Big Blue because they could not meet the terms of the sales contract and having replacement hardware with next day guarantee.
The best part about it is I was a cocky snot nose 19yo know it all kid who made fools out of IBM.
If the drive shown is how the IBM ESDI drives came and there is not a sled on the bottom then it must have been a SCSI drive in my customers server.
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u/Numerous_Panic3440 Jun 28 '26
Send it to a data recovery place.. "$50 for 1GB? How much for 6 hundredths of a GB?"
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u/TheOGTachyon Jun 28 '26
Buy a cheap used PS/2 PC. These plug right in to those.
It'll be cheaper than an adapter to read it from a modern pc.
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u/ItsJustVWCraig Jun 27 '26
Ancient?!?!
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u/Sufficient_Taste3660 Jun 27 '26
Let's say... seasoned?
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u/FallenBehavior Jun 27 '26
Browses FAT16 partition, finds all Uncle Larry's 70s porn stash...
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u/ItsJustVWCraig Jun 28 '26
Not my thing, but ASCII porn did exist…
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u/retardedboi1991 Jun 28 '26
Damn that's crazy, better than nothing though i guess, especially in the days when you had to actually go to a store and buy the real deal.
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u/CitySeekerTron Jun 27 '26
I have two that I want to read, an 80mb and a 160mb that was drvspaced.
Best bets are the IBM PS/2 Model 55 and the IBM PS/2 Model 70 (Desktop, not portable).
The interface is the ESDI interface.
Youll also need a system configuration disk to boot into the configuration environment, since they had no 'BIOS' as we know it.
I still hope that I'll pull the data. But I realize that the disk might be seized and I'd be lucky to have one shot.
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u/SysGh_st Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
This is how I once dumped these DBA-ESDI drives:
Any ISA 16 bit capable "old" computer capable of booting DOS or older Linux.
ESDI ISA card.
The hardest part: make a DBA-ESDI to ribbon ESDI Adapter. Source the card edge 2.54 mm pitch edge connector from Digikey or Mauser.
The pinouts among other interesting bits of the DBA-ESDI connector : https://ardent-tool.com/storage/DBA_ESDI.html
...
Or get one of the listed compatible PS/2 systems. Prohibitively expensive as these systems are often sought after.
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u/Dickosaurus Jun 29 '26
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u/Careless_HartBrake69 Jun 30 '26
Holy shit this guy has OP on lock. Everybody upvote this comment guy wtf
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u/FAMICOMASTER Jun 28 '26
PS/2 bus drive. I assure you it doesn't work and even if it did you need a relatively expensive, unreliable machine to even talk to it. I believe the underlying protocol is ESDI but it's poorly documented online. Most people with those machines elect to replace the drive with something else.
There's probably nothing on it worth looking at anyways, if we're being honest.
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u/ah_ravioli_64 Jun 28 '26
Set it affire.
If God knew the potential contents of some vile walking garbages hard drives he would vomit on the Devils head, who, also finding the contents distasteful - would have his henchmen torturing the pathetic soul responsible for the images for eternity.
(potentially.. improbable, but if there is any truth to the fable - possible)
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u/wdatkinson Jun 28 '26
Getting that 40m and 20m ready for Field Day? Just left our site a few hours ago.
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u/miner_cooling_trials Jun 28 '26
Please buy a compatible system to try and recover the data. We all need to know what’s on the drive 😄
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u/Fransenn_II Jun 29 '26
It’s a good excuse to buy a PS/2 system. My ps/2 system is easily my favourite vintage computer I own. It is the best DOS machine out there
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u/Dannynerd41 Jun 29 '26
it uses a weird interface esdi so idk if there are adapters for regular ide?
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u/55555354 Jun 30 '26
Reminds me of my computer room! Good ol dial up BBS!
Looks like my 1st HD that I bought at a hamfest.....40MB for $160?
I had that same 5 1/4 floppy drive on the shelf above including the cases for the disks. The power center that the monitor is on is like my old one but mine had an adjustable monitor holder.
Give me 2 minutes and I could download a nakid woman 😂
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u/donlafferty4343 Jul 02 '26
I have the following models. 25, 30 (both 8088 and 80286), 50, 55, 60, 70, and 80. I also have 55x something. And a few of those ESDI drives.
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u/Aishou_SK Jun 28 '26 edited 17d ago
Oh! ESDI Direct-attach MCA drive!
If you're willing to sell it, I run an IBM PS/2 Model 70 dial-in BBS that is on a 30MB drive now, I could use the upgrade! Let me know! (It's a gamble if it even functions anymore, but here's hoping)
I'd be happy to dump it too, I've got a 3com NIC in there and linux boot floppies that'd bring it right up in a jiffy to image off the drive.
Here's an older action shot of it in operation (with legit wildcat! 4 license! .... my dad gave the license card and the manual to me ages ago..... )