Ask Slashdot: Old PC File Transfer Problem

An anonymous reader writes I have an old Compaq Contura Aero laptop from the nineties (20 Mhz, 12 Mb RAM, Windows 3.11, 16-bit, PCMCIA, COM, LPT, floppy) with 160 Mb drive that I would want to copy in full to a newer machine. The floppies are so unreliable — between Aero's PCMCIA floppy drive and USB floppy disk drive — that it is a total nightmare to try and do it; it just doesn't work. If that option is excluded, what else can I do? I have another old laptop with Windows XP (32-bit, PCMCIA, COM, LPT) that could be used; all other machines are too new and lack ports. Will be grateful for any ideas.

Comments

Jeez, don't make this harder than it needs to be.

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple way:

1. Open up old laptop. Run defrag program. Set it to show the entire blockmap for the old hard drive.
2. Turn on new laptop's webcam, set it to stream output to a text file. Focus webcam on the blockmap from the defrag program on old computer.

The webcam will read the contents of each block on the old laptop's HD and write it to the text file on the new laptop. Easy peasy.

Re: file transfer

[gerf]

I have one on the shelf next to me. Yawn. Email me if you'd like to borrow it.

Re:file transfer

[ihtoit]

laptops haven't had parallel ports since 2010. Serial ports went out around the same time. Firewire is hen's teeth as is PCMCIA/Cardbus, and finding something with an infrared port is like bottling unicorn farts.

Re:Jeez, don't make this harder than it needs to b

[AmiMoJo]

Seems like a lot of effort. I just get a serial cable and press my tongue against the TX pin. Then type "copy COM1:" on the source machine and open up Notepad on the target. By hovering my hand over the keyboard on the target the little electrical shocks from the serial port cause spasms that make my hand type the file out. It's slow and painful but some people like that.