• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

A way to re-use an IBM PS/2 dead drive

tony359

tony359

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
67
Hi all,

I've always been attached to my PS/2 model 30, it's where all started. I used them at school when I was a teenager and I remember the funny noise those stepper-driven HDDs were making.
When I got a PS/2 I was so sad that the HDD was not working and my investigation seems to point to a common material degradation inside the drive. That means that all those drives will likely fail or have failed already.

So I decided to try to control the stepper motor myself and I made a video out of it :) I am pretty impressed by the result. Not hearing the HDD when that orange switch it flipped was really missing half of the experience.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 
This is really a good idea and a very cool way to give a dead drive a second chance, thanks for sharing
 
Really neat idea, really good at keeping it simple as far as something like this goes!
 
I hate all "fake" things sorry. Either use a real working hard drive or don't, all the various sound simulators are trash to me
 
maxtherabbit said:
I hate all "fake" things sorry. Either use a real working hard drive or don't, all the various sound simulators are trash to me
Click to expand...
I understand what you mean. A Tesla with the motor sound of a Ferrari is rubbish, no doubt. But a PS/2 with the sound of a PS/2 certainly has it charm.
There is a firm in France exchanging the original engine with an electric one. Adding a sound module that imitates the original engine sound, I will consider as a very nice touch.
 
syzygy said:
Well, unless they're part of a symphony orchestra...

Imagine the endless debate that future archeologists will engage in trying to explain these things.
Click to expand...
I am familiar with music generated by a Commodore 1541 drive but this beats everything!
 
I have seen this since the early release where they did the Star Wars Imperial march. This is insane. Do they ever go into whats controlling them all? Or is that like finding the recipe to the secret sauce?



Maybe they should do Metallica ONE and use a dot matrix for the Guitar machine gun and insane drum effects....
 
Ruud said:
I understand what you mean. A Tesla with the motor sound of a Ferrari is rubbish, no doubt. But a PS/2 with the sound of a PS/2 certainly has it charm.
There is a firm in France exchanging the original engine with an electric one. Adding a sound module that imitates the original engine sound, I will consider as a very nice touch.
Click to expand...
Oops, I forgot to mention the Citroen 2CV as being the target of the exchange.
 
maxtherabbit said:
I hate all "fake" things sorry. Either use a real working hard drive or don't, all the various sound simulators are trash to me
Click to expand...
I understand but "real working drives" are no longer a thing - they are all self-destructing. My theory is that white plastic clip inside the drive which is depositing debris on the top platter. If you watched the video, even my friend Epictronics discovered that his PS/2 HDD is failing.
I'd love to have an actual, working one. But how long will it last?

Thanks all for the comments - I need to set up my profile so I get email notifications!!

I'm going to get another HDD, it's a WDI-330P. Does anybody know if it's got a voice coil or a stepper?
 
VERAULT said:
Maybe they should do Metallica ONE and use a dot matrix for the Guitar machine gun and insane drum effects....
Click to expand...
Be careful listening to Metallica, my belief is that it can corrupt your hard drive. I thought Compressorhead had done some Metallica, but can't find it now - maybe this will fit the bill, although I don't see any recycled floppies.

 
syzygy said:
Be careful listening to Metallica, my belief is that it can corrupt your hard drive. I thought Compressorhead had done some Metallica, but can't find it now - maybe this will fit the bill, although I don't see any recycled floppies.

Click to expand...
When I was a kid this is what I envisioned the future to be....... Instead we got smartphones, facebook, and the bleak wasteland that is the world today..

Why couldn't we have Metal playing robots?!?!


R.I.P. Lemmy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top