DMS-X
asked on
286 hard drive
I need to get some data off an old "Compaq Deskpro 286" with a dead floppy drive. Is it possible to take the hard drive out of the 286 and put it in a mondern day desktop pc as a slave drive to copy the contents over?
Thanks
Thanks
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
The 286 probably came with a MFM controller for the hard disk.You will need that controller to read and write data from the old HD to the new.
Your new system will probably require an ISA slot of some sorts for the MFM controller.
The old controller probably isn't plug and play, so you may have to configure the IRQ accordingly(manually) to work in the ISA slot and the OS.
Everthing back in those days was jumpered .
Have fun.
Your new system will probably require an ISA slot of some sorts for the MFM controller.
The old controller probably isn't plug and play, so you may have to configure the IRQ accordingly(manually) to work in the ISA slot and the OS.
Everthing back in those days was jumpered .
Have fun.
ASKER
pgm554,
The 286 did come with some kind of controller card. I found an old PII laying around with an ISA slot in it. so I threw in the old controller card and hard drive from the 286, but I coulnt get it to recognize the hard drive. Without any documentation its hard to know what I need to do. I even tried moving some jumpers around on the controller card. If you have an answer let me know and I will open up a question so you can get some points.
Thanks
The 286 did come with some kind of controller card. I found an old PII laying around with an ISA slot in it. so I threw in the old controller card and hard drive from the 286, but I coulnt get it to recognize the hard drive. Without any documentation its hard to know what I need to do. I even tried moving some jumpers around on the controller card. If you have an answer let me know and I will open up a question so you can get some points.
Thanks
Deskpros 286 use STANDARD IDE drives. So, you don't need to take out any controlers (they probably won't work on a new machine anyway).
Just take out the Disk drive, unplug the CD-ROM on your new PC and connect the old drive there. If the old disk is not recognized, you probably have to go to the BIOS program (normally pressing DEL at powerup) and set your IDE devices to AUTO, new PCs automaticly set hard Drive parameters.
Just take out the Disk drive, unplug the CD-ROM on your new PC and connect the old drive there. If the old disk is not recognized, you probably have to go to the BIOS program (normally pressing DEL at powerup) and set your IDE devices to AUTO, new PCs automaticly set hard Drive parameters.
Last time I looked ,the standard drive in a Desk Pro 286 was a Seagate ST-238 ,which was not an IDE interface.
It was RLL with an ST506 interface and cables.
It was RLL with an ST506 interface and cables.
Here is an image of an ST 238R and it ain't IDE
http://home.arcor.de/k.arenfeld/jpeg/pcteile/st238r.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/k.arenfeld/jpeg/pcteile/st238r.jpg
It's been a very long time since I worked on 286 based systems,but to change settings a earlier Compaq's required a setup disk to let you change things in the BIOS.
Depending upon the controller card in the machine ,it had an onboard BIOS that handled the disk.
I think you had to set the onboard controller BIOS for disks on the host machine to none otherwise conflicts could arise.
The issue for the RLL controller card ,could be one of the IRQ for the controller and making sure that the ISA slot is configured manually to the same IRQ through the BIOS settings on that MOBO.
Then you could run into issues, in that whatever OS he is running, doesn't have the correct device drivers for that ISA card.
And you may have to configure the IRQ manually through the device manager to match the hardware setup.
All in all ,not a fun thing to try and accomplish.
There was a whole lot more involved before plug and pray in the early days of PC's.
Depending upon the controller card in the machine ,it had an onboard BIOS that handled the disk.
I think you had to set the onboard controller BIOS for disks on the host machine to none otherwise conflicts could arise.
The issue for the RLL controller card ,could be one of the IRQ for the controller and making sure that the ISA slot is configured manually to the same IRQ through the BIOS settings on that MOBO.
Then you could run into issues, in that whatever OS he is running, doesn't have the correct device drivers for that ISA card.
And you may have to configure the IRQ manually through the device manager to match the hardware setup.
All in all ,not a fun thing to try and accomplish.
There was a whole lot more involved before plug and pray in the early days of PC's.
ASKER
Cool I am going to go break down the box right now : )