Oy.
Have a file. On a computer so old the case is made of a thin veneer of granite. It has a floppy drive. The floppy drive does not work. I need the file. Any ideas? (Compaq Armada 7710 for those who are inclined). A serial port, a parallel port, NO usb ports.
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
Pull the hard drive and put it in an IDE docking station and plug that into another computer?
That is a good solution. Might be hard to find, but mounting the hard drive in a USB enclosure will work. Have done it more than once-
If it’s that old it may not be IDE. I have a Dell Inspiron 600m of that vintage that’s got a PATA drive in it.
A couple of months ago I could have given you a couple of those Armadas, one that worked and another than had “issues”. They’ve since been recycled, unfortunately.
Can you rig a null modem serial cable between it and another older machine and transfer the file that way?
If the antique has no network capability at all the the null modem is probably the least invasive way to go.
With the portable IDE enclosure you could probably just plop the entire drive contents into a folder on a more modern computer.
Bummer! My employer still has batteries in stock for that beastie… we started selling them in 1998, so it isn’t a new one! You have several options, getting the null modem serial cable up will likely be the easiest.
Option 2: I still have a couple Iomega ZIP drives, one parallel and one USB that have been known to help… but it only flies if you already had the driver files on the lappy.
Last, being a lappy, it is likely to have a reduced size drive, which means a reduced size IDE connector — I still have an adapter amongst the antiques in my cube. They went from the standard 0.100″ pitch to a 2mm pitch connector and they were elongated because someone added the power connections in, too.
Good luck!
Does it have an empty slot where you can plug in a modem or NIC?
There are a lot of ways to skin this cat.
1. Put the HD into another computer (or connect through an IDE converter).
2. Serial to serial connect to another computer.
3. Modem, dial to your computer with TCP protocol or one of those other stone age things that I used to know about but forgot 20 years ago.
4. NIC to HUB CAT5. network and drive sharing.
5. 3rd party to transfer the files to a flash memory stick or card for you.
I got EXTREMELY lucky. There was a backup of the critical file on my shared drive at work. This file is the one and only way to communicate with legacy equipment.
I had to use a service to transfer a file from a 5.25″ floppy to a DVD for some legacy equipment. They can be found on the internet. I think it cost ten bucks.
I just found a sealed LapLink box, cable included, still in the shrink….
If you need it, holler.
What Scott said, if this happens again – serial ports are fine for normal file transfer from that era (ie, not gigabytes of movies).
Been there, done that.
Yep, i learned my lesson and put this as well as about ten other critical files all in multiple locationd where i can readily access them worldwide. Thanks for the suggestions, folks, and yes, i did remember i have a laplink cable and software.