FelineGrace@cup.portal.com (Dana B Bourgeois) (05/01/91)
I have a model 50, not a 50Z, and it has had the hard drive upgraded once from the 20MB IBM drive to a 30MB Toshiba. This is a 3rd party kit from Dolphin System (i think) and the Toshiba is mounted on a frame, plugs into a pcb on the frame, the whole thing which slides into the model 50 just like the original 20MB drive did. Now I want to upgrade to a drive larger than 30 MB but I don't know what kind of drive to get - or whether I can even do it. IBM wants $800 for a 60MB drive (corporate discount. Ain't I lucky!) but I know that I can get around 100MB for about $400 so I am appealing to the net to help me figure out how to use a 'standard' drive in this machine. Several people have said the IBM drive is an MFM drive with a special (proprietary) controller board. ONe guy said it is IDE but proprietary. I think the current setup, which works well by the way, is just to get the Toshiba signals from the Toshiba drive to the IBM controller. I don't see any elctronics on the Dolphin adaptor PCB. HOpefully someone knows what kind of drive is needed and can tell me "just get any 'ol (MFM, IDE, WhatEver) drive and replace the Toshiba with it. If necessary, I can supply the Toshiba part number. I just don't have it here at home. Please send email, I am not a regular reader of this thread yet and I don't want to miss your answer. If there are several replies, I will summarize to the net. Thanks to all respondents. I have spent several hours on this already calling around the country. Dealers don't know more than "Only IBM drives work in the Model 50" or "you need a new controller/drive from XYZ-company". And IBM won't talk to users. This is frustrating me! Dana Bourgeois @ cup.portal.com