Wisdom of the ancients

[sevendale]

HEEEEEEEEEELP! I know I should take this up with Bill Gates, but he's kinda busy redistributing my former wealth.
My ol bot runs in dos mode on a windows98 computer. My cad runs on a newer XP unit. I've been writing to a cd and copying dxf files to the old machine for months. Suddenly it won't work! The new machine says the format is incorrect (actually it's the same disc I've been using) and the old machine says insert disc/retry. New discs didn't help. Floppy 3 1/4" didn't translate either. So now I can't tell the bot what to do (from where you are you might hear me screaming about where it can go, but that won't help).
Anyone encountered this before? Yeah, cash is an issue: ain't got none.
Thanks, I'm done griping now..........

[rcnewcomb]

My guess is the CD drive in the old machine has become dirty or failed.

You may be able to scrounge another older CD writer from a computer dealer in town. You might also check FreeCycle.org.

[srwtlc]

How about a USB thumb drive?

I've had XP mess up CD-RW discs before too (usually when going between two different computers).

Money is no object! No money, no object! ;-)

[sevendale]

Thanks but.
So I went and bought a USB card with 3 ports.........came with a CD of drivers.... Cd worked fine in the ol 98?! So I plugged in my flash drive, 98 went looking for drivers for that! Now I have to go back to the store, again, to get another CD to copy drivers from the web so I can make the flash drive work so I won't have to use CDs.....................never never never give up. Never.

[srwtlc]

If you don't have or can't find some drivers, I have some from SanDisk that will work for Win98 (a generic driver).

I can email them to you if you need them.

[sevendale]

Scott, Thanks. I found drivers on the web, downloaded them to my NEW computer, and now how do I get them into the OLD computer if the 3 1/4" floppy won't work, the CDrom won't work, and the usb flash drive needs drivers before it can be read?!?! D'oh! LOL
Never give up, remember that, although sometimes it helps to back off and start over.

[srwtlc]

Your CD/floppy drives must be full of dust. I used to have that problem until I put the computer in an enclosed cabinet with a fan pressurizing it with clean filtered air.

You could use a modem and a dial up connection.

Try another CD/floppy drive that you know works.

Do you have a digital camera that will work with both computers? You could save info to the flash memory through My Computer/Windows Explorer. Probably can't get the drivers in for that either if they aren't already there.

Slave a spare hard drive to one and then take it to the other.

Take the hard drive out of the 98 computer and slave it to the new computer which will make it be just another drive in that one that you can save files to and from. Don't forget to set it back to Master when putting it back.

[bcammack]

Following on Scott's suggestion:

One of my latest favorite tools for this sort of thing is a USB<->IDE adapter. It plugs into the ribbon cable connector on the drive and into the power connector, then into a computer's USB. (like an external USB enclosure for a HD, but without the enclosure)

It allows you to get at the data on a hard drive without doing anything invasive with the good computer, just the problem child.

I just used mine to recover about 40 gigs of critical info of a Win98 boot drive that had munched most of the operating system partition and was acting like a paperweight.

www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) has them for $20 or less most of the time.

[srwtlc]

Good idea Brett! I've often looked at those things and thought I should get one, but since I already have a USB enclosure with a 120G drive in, I haven't bothered.

[sevendale]

oh for crying out loud
I had a brainstorm: take the cdreader out of the new computer and put it in the old computer.
I can't get the wire tape (grey, 2" wide, terminates in 1/4"x2 1/4" black plugs) out of the drive; my fingers won't get a grip and I can't get it out far enough to bite it off!
Is this a conspiracy? Are you guys ROFLMAO?

[sevendale]

Along with basic white sneakers, the everything shoe, a gentleman should always (except in airports, pity) have a small pocket knife: the everything tool.
Never give up.

[sevendale]

primary master hard disk fail


I swear I never touched it! Why now? Why not?!?

[myxpykalix]

Rob,
A buddy gave me this tip and it worked once for me and i was able to retrieve most of my info from a failed harddrive to copy to a new drive.
Take the drive out and stick it in the freezer overnite then have another drive ready to copy all your files to quick.

Also go to microsoft and get a free utilty called "SyncToy". I have a seperate external drive i copy all important files to automatically, just in case.

[srwtlc]

Make sure that the cd drive you're putting in has the same "master/slave/cable select" setting as the one that was in it. The little jumper block at the back end. There should be a diagram by it too.

Usually can't put the ribbon cable in backwards, but there's a pin 1 orientation that needs to be the same also.

[sevendale]

This harddrive dates from Oct 95! I need a flashlight and a magnifying glass! AAARRGGH!!
Another trip to town for a harddrive. Mind you I did back up my cadd computer and this one I'm emailing from, but the one from 95? I'm not that smart. Wait, I have an excuse: I couldn't get the cd or floppy to work. (You should have done it on day one!!)

[jerry_stanek]

How big is the hard drive that you are trying to install. A windows 95 machine won't see a large hard drive. You will get that message as a failed hard drive.

[larry_r]

Rob

You are a very patient person. I think I would have gone out and bought another computer by now.

Larry

[sevendale]

Larry, all problems (at least all of mine) can be solved with more money (send money). Since I spent all mine on these tools I'm trying to get by on 'minimum wage'. So I went to a local computer guru. He graciously pointed out to me the dip switch settings on my CDrom and the fact that the hard drive and CD were on the same ribbon cable, unlike in the newer computer where they were on seperate cables. With BIG reading glasses I reset the switch: simple once you know how. (I insisted on paying him for his time)
Now I have the CD or the flash drive to transfer files.............maybe I should back up everything now! Scott, your point was correct, I just could not get the visual: the local guy held it up to the light and showed me.
Thanks again all, let's end this thread here.