Transfering Data from an Ancient Computer

[firewolfsm]

This computer has no ethernet, usb, or firewire ports. i need to transfer about 80MB of data from it. i want to know if i can just take an old ide HDD and put it in the second bay, if not, i can buy this pci - ethernet card ($40), it runs dos

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150026

 

[thecoolnessrune]

If you got a serial cable from an old computer, most old computers and a lot of new computer have one (the 9-pin version). WinXP can connect to comps using a serial cable and the Network setup disk that it can make should allow it to configure itself on the other computer if its running an older version of Windows. Or the older version of Windows might have serial networking built in. i know my Win98 Gateway did. It might take a while though. i believe serical cables did a max of 128KB a sec. Which means real throughput would probably be in the 30KB a sec. area.

 

[tweekah]

Yah, you could just slave the drive and then move stuff over then. This might be a good investment as well
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156001

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Those things are a real big if. Without driver support, sometimes the work, sometimes they dont. I tried a serial to RJ-45 one time, and it didn't work at all. I'd stay away from the adapter that convert from one entire format to another. (Something like Firewire 6pin-4pin or serial 25pin-9pin would be ok though)

 

[firewolfsm]

This computer is pretty ancient, though, and doesn't have windows installed - it only runs DOS. Would there be compatibility/config problems?

 

[theMan]

what kind of hard drive does it have?

 

[BFG10K]

i can buy this pci - ethernet card ($40),

Is that U.S dollars? If so that's one hell of an expensive NIC.

 

[firewolfsm]

Conner CFS541A

 

[firewolfsm]

I think I'll just put an IDE hard drive in as a slave - how do I need to set up the BIOS or jumper settings?

 

[teddyv]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm
I think I'll just put an IDE hard drive in as a slave - how do I need to set up the BIOS or jumper settings?

Conner (Seagate) has the info.

 

[Arcanedeath]

safest way is to put a nic in the system and transfer the files over a network, the dangerous way is to slave the old drive to another system and copy the data, I would suggest not removing the old drive from the case its in and just getting an external usb to ide converter and doing the transfer that way, old hdds are very fragile and can lose their data easily (I did this once w/ a 430mb drive on a 486 pc to save some irereplacable documents and the drive failed right after the transfer.)

 

[CrispyFried]

Ive done this many times with old (40 to 240 meg, yup meg) ide drives, here are a few tricks Ive found that may help.

Make sure its on its own channel, temporarily disconnect anything else on that cable if you have a anything on it. Really old drives dont mix well with newer ones, and it may not work at all if another drive is on that cable even if jumered right. if its really old you may have to manually set the CHS settings in the BIOS (copy them from the old comps BIOS screen or get that info from the manufacturers site if its not printed on the drive label) as some really old ide drives didnt auto report that. use pio mode 2 or 3 or 4, dont use dma, some old drives get flakey under dma. set the old hd as master, master with no slave, or no jumper.. some old drives had weird jumper settings so try it in that order. Plug it into the last connector on the cable. watch the orientation of the cable, old drives werent keyed and can be plugged in "backwards."

BTW almost all inexpensive nics will have dos drivers, jyst check the web sites for the card. biggest concern is what kind of slots does the old comp use? Might not have PCI slots, only ISA, in which case youre out of luck and the only way to xfer is to put the old hd in another comp, or get a null modem adapter (crossover box) and use serial cables. Or even set it up and xfer via modem if you have 2 phone lines, or set it up at a friends house and use modems.

 

[Jiggz]

Originally posted by: CrispyFried
Ive done this many times with old (40 to 240 meg, yup meg) ide drives, here are a few tricks Ive found that may help.

Make sure its on its own channel, temporarily disconnect anything else on that cable if you have a anything on it. Really old drives dont mix well with newer ones, and it may not work at all if another drive is on that cable even if jumered right. if its really old you may have to manually set the CHS settings in the BIOS (copy them from the old comps BIOS screen or get that info from the manufacturers site if its not printed on the drive label) as some really old ide drives didnt auto report that. use pio mode 2 or 3 or 4, dont use dma, some old drives get flakey under dma. set the old hd as master, master with no slave, or no jumper.. some old drives had weird jumper settings so try it in that order. Plug it into the last connector on the cable. watch the orientation of the cable, old drives werent keyed and can be plugged in "backwards."

BTW almost all inexpensive nics will have dos drivers, jyst check the web sites for the card. biggest concern is what kind of slots does the old comp use? Might not have PCI slots, only ISA, in which case youre out of luck and the only way to xfer is to put the old hd in another comp, or get a null modem adapter (crossover box) and use serial cables. Or even set it up and xfer via modem if you have 2 phone lines, or set it up at a friends house and use modems.

:thumbsup: