IBM 560e Conundrum
I was very lucky to be given a 560e which arrived to me today, but I’m realising that working with it will be a bit more of a challenge than my usual choice of portable computer.
I don’t have the original external floppy disk drive, and it doesn’t have any usb ports. There’s a proprietary floppy disk drive port, vga, pci serial and parallel port, as well as 1 ps/2 port.
(It’s also a japanese model with windows 98 in mandarin, but that bit is just cool/fun. Changing the location from china to the UK didn’t change the display language, but I’ve changed the input to English(UK) now at least)
My initial assumption is to use a CF card in a pc card adapter for the majority of moving data over to it? I have no clue if there are external drives that use a standard serial port, but ebay is flooded with so many USB models that it feels like a waste of time to dig through masses of irrelevant listings if they don’t exist. The floppy disk drive the model originally came with is a bit rare, and the pricing is a little dear…
I’m guessing that cloning the 2.5” IDE HDD would be easiest externally with another computer and adapter to usb? I want to make sure it’s backed up with all the OEM drivers, even though the HDD seems healthy. I’m hoping what looks like polariser burn and the mild beginnings of vinegar syndrome worsen slowly enough that I can enjoy it for a while before the display is a goner.
Do let me know if you’ve had similar experiences. I love this thing already, and want to make sure I’m not making unnecessary extra steps for myself with it. I never really know where gaps in knowledge are until they catch me unaware, so I thought it was best to ask.
The photo is post cleanup both externally and internally. Still thinking on whether to vinyl wrap the lid ;)