what hardware is required for data transfer off 486?

[bluemax]

Yep. I have a friend 3000km away who needs my help. He's got a 486 and first-gen Pentium he wants to get documents and such off of, to put on the new computers he's finally outfitted the family with.

No, he doesn't have the skill to pull the hard drive and put it in the new machine. This advice should be for the completely computer-illiterate.

Old PC has no USB, which rules out all kinds of great external drives and such.

About the only two reasonable ideas I can think of are:
External Parallel ZIP drive
External Parallel hard drive enclosure (almost impossible to get now)
Direct serial or parallel connection along with some simple connection/transfer software. (He won't be able to change Windows settings manually, etc.)
Windows XP migration w/ serial cable (how does this work???)

Your advice is sure appreciated... I'm racking my brain because all the modern solutions won't work and I'm not there to do it oldskool.

 

[stevty2889]

Hmm, what OS"s are on the old systems? If they at least have windows 95, then he should be able to do a parallel, or serial cable link, but they are very very slow. An external drive might not be a bad idea either. Really, those are all more complicated then just putting the old drive in the new PC..I used a parallel connection once, it was a huge pain to set up and get working, and was extremely slow, and not easy for the computer illiterate. So if he absolutly can't just move the drive over to the new PC to copy the data, an external parallel zip drive would probably be best, assuming you can find one that has drivers old enough for the older operating systems, that still works with windows xp..

 

[DaveSimmons]

For a parallel zip drive you might try a WTB ad in FS/FT.

> Direct serial or parallel connection along with some simple connection/transfer software. (He won't be able to change Windows settings manually, etc.)

Google "laplink cable" and also search Hot Deals for some free version of Laplink

You sure they can't pull the hard drives and put them into an _external_ enclosure? It's really, really easy and just needs a screwdriver.

 

[Anubis]

does it have a ethernet connection? if so just network it

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Anubis
does it have a ethernet connection? if so just network it

That involves changing network settings - he won't be doing that. Period.


Pulling the old hard drive and putting it in an external enclosure would be an extreme for him..... Parallel with Laplink is looking like the best route short of getting a technician friend to help out on the cheap.

 

[akugami]

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/usb_serial.htm

That and a cheap USB flash drive might do the trick. He can save the USB flash drive as a backup in a safe for important documents. I do not work for, nor have I bought this or any product from this company. You can do a google search for a similar device from someone else if you wish. It at least gives you an idea of what to look for and seems like just the product you need.

 

[Dennis Travis]

parallel Zip Drive works and is easy.

Here is one on ebay but it's ending soon.


http://cgi.ebay.com/Iomega-Zip-Drive-Ex...4QQcategoryZ116251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Iomega-Z100P2-100-1...5QQcategoryZ116251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/IOMEGA-Zip-Drive-10...3QQcategoryZ116251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[biostud]

1.44Mb 3.5" Floppy disks

 

[nineball9]

Floppy disks? (how I migrated my 486 years ago!)

 

[0roo0roo]

yea ur just gonna have to walk him through how to install hd's into external usb enclosures. takes his probably old and decrepit install of windows whatever out of the equation completely. nothing about 486's were user friendly for the computer illiterate. installing old half broken zip drives or whatever is probably asking for trouble. back then plug and pray really meant just that. plus any of those other options are hideously slow.