486 Data Copy to USB Drive?

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Schmide

Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,712
978
126
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Right. Surely this is a larger sample than someone who has done professional and forensic data recovery and hard drive repair for the past 8+ years. :roll:
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Did you listen to what he said in the podcast? Sometimes is kind of vague. Seriously we have portable drives that get carried from home to work every day. I would think there would be a greater failure rate from this issue. :roll: I would love to see a statistic on this, the truth is they don't have them. If they did I would give more weight to this.

But lets throw some numbers out there. Lets over estimate, some would say properly estimate, drive failure rate before MTTF or replacement at 13%. Of that failure rate there can be a number of causes, so we have an upper bound of 13% and a more realistic lower bound of sometimes out of 13%. I may not be a drive expert but I understand statistics.

 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,892
543
126
Originally posted by: Schmide
I may not be a drive expert but I understand statistics.
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Well OK, just so we establish the facts. You, not a drive expert who has never repaired a hard drive, disassembled and diagnosed a hard drive failure, wouldn't know the mechanical internals of a hard drive if you fell over them, are questioning the experience and conclusions of someone who does these things professionally as a certified forensic examiner for eight years, on the basis that you understand something about statistics (and nothing about hard drives).

Alrighty then! That tells us everything we need to know.

 
Schmide

Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,712
978
126
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Alrighty then! That tells us everything we need to know.
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I'm not here to tell you everything you need to know, just bring some reality to the situation. If you want to argue the failure rate based on dust being significant, bring out the evidence. I can't find it and there doesn't seem to be much of a case for it. I'm not here to prove an unknown.

Done
 
E

ecom

Senior member
Feb 25, 2009
479
0
0
Depending on the capabilities of the 486, it may be possible to network them using a parallel cable also. On newer machines, it's possible to get ~2Mbps real throughput on ECP but I don't know if the hardware or OS on your 486 will support it. Bi-directional parallel port was ratified in 1994. Prior to that, they were generally unidirectional.

After looking into it some more, Pentium came out in 1993 so it's possible that the parallel port may be unidirectional so you cannot network two computers with it. This would also eliminate the possibility of using a Zip drive.

This leaves you with serial port which on a 486 might be limited to 115.2kbps. You could then easily use a null modem and Hyperterm or something similar to do the file transfers. For 500MB, this could mean more than 12 hours.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
btw, LapLink software was originally made to do serial transfers between PCs. Some versions came with null modem cables. I have old copies of this software. You might be able to find one on eBay.
 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,892
543
126
Originally posted by: Old Hippie
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Ethernet to USB adapter/converter is also an option. e.g.

TrendNet TU2-ET100
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Do they work?
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Don't know, haven't opened the TrendNet ones yet. I bought a similar device from D-Link about four years ago and it worked fine but I gave it to someone.

How the hell is that an option? The system can't use USB.
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But it most likely has 10Mbit ethernet, maybe 10/100. If not, he should have no problem finding an older 3COM or Intel NIC with Win 3.1/DOS drivers for next to free. e.g.

ISA NIC cards at Compuvest.com
 
R

RU482

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
12,689
3
81
what kind of cryptic requirements are you giving us saying "cannot remove the hard drive"? Why not?
 
S

sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
7,183
45
91
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Originally posted by: Old Hippie
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Ethernet to USB adapter/converter is also an option. e.g.

TrendNet TU2-ET100
Click to expand...
Do they work?
Click to expand...
Don't know, haven't opened the TrendNet ones yet. I bought a similar device from D-Link about four years ago and it worked fine but I gave it to someone.

How the hell is that an option? The system can't use USB.
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But it most likely has 10Mbit ethernet, maybe 10/100. If not, he should have no problem finding an older 3COM or Intel NIC with Win 3.1/DOS drivers for next to free. e.g.

ISA NIC cards at Compuvest.com
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I fail to see how a USB Nic is going to help when you say yourself he can get an ISA nic. Unless you think he can plug that adapter into a NIC and somehow get a usb connection, which wouldn't work anyway, and even if it did work, windows 3 still isn't going to magically have usb drivers.
 
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tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,892
543
126
Errr, you have the ends mixed up.

Source PC with ethernet connection -> Ethernet/USB adapter -> newer destination computer with USB ports (e.g. laptop)
 
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themisfit610

Golden Member
Apr 16, 2006
1,352
2
81
I'd just pull the damn drive :p

Or if you're paranoid, get a USB -> IDE adapter with an extension cable, leave the hard drive where it is, and just plug the cable into the drive as-is.

~MiSfit
 
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sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
7,183
45
91
Originally posted by: tcsenter
Errr, you have the ends mixed up.

Source PC with ethernet connection -> Ethernet/USB adapter -> newer destination computer with USB ports (e.g. laptop)
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Most newer destination computers would also have a NIC built in though, hence my confusion.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Originally posted by: sswingle
All newer destination computers would also have a NIC built in though, hence my confusion.
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Fixed.

I don't know of a single PC built since 1997 that doesn't have built-in Ethernet.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,402
9,926
126
Everyone's been arguing over this for a week now. I wonder which method the OP chose... :^P
 
PottedMeat

PottedMeat

Lifer
Apr 17, 2002
12,363
475
126
Originally posted by: lxskllr
Everyone's been arguing over this for a week now. I wonder which method the OP chose... :^P
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A week so... I'll assume he went with the 500 floppies. If they're anything like the floppies I used 10 years ago, he got through a significant % of being finished when there was a read error on one. Then he got fired.
 
RebateMonger

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Originally posted by: PottedMeat
A week so... I'll assume he went with the 500 floppies. If they're anything like the floppies I used 10 years ago, he got through a significant % of being finished when there was a read error on one. Then he got fired.
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Microsoft's backup program from the MSDOS era had a fatal flaw. If ANY of the many floppy disks had a bad sector, the ENTIRE backup was trash. I remember attempting a restore with about twenty floppy disks, and having the restore fail on the nineteenth floppy.
 
E

ecom

Senior member
Feb 25, 2009
479
0
0
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: s0ren
IDE to SD card adapter

http://www.addonics.com/produc...ory_reader/adidesd.asp
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I'm amazed that the specs say it works in DOS, Win 3.1, NT, etc. Presumably, this is "driverless", made so by completely emulating a hard drive or (more likely) a floppy drive in firmware.
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This could work, but remember that 486 would be limited to 540MB drives. I don't know how this thing will work out. I suppose as long as you use a 512MB or smaller card it should be ok.
 
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