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PCMCIA Compact Flash -> SD?

sirwiggum

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
68
Sorry if this subject has been posted before.

I was wondering if this would be possible...

My old Toshiba T2130CT floppy drive is gone, and I would like to use my desktop computer to back up all of my old floppy disks before they inevitably die too.

Is it possible to use a compact flash adaptor in the PCMCIA slot to access an SD card (2GB say) that is Fat16 formatted and therefore compatible with DOS/Win3.1/Win95?

Has anyone tried this?

Do you need to load specific drivers, or does it just treat it as another drive?
 
Why not get pcmcia ethernet card and just send data over network?
I have seen people stack adapters , like PCMCIA->Compactflash->sd

You said you want to back up fdd, so what are you wanting to do with the PCMCIA slot?
If back up the hdd, just pull the drive and get an ide->usb adapter transfer kit for $15?

If you aim to boot from it I think it will not work, I tried once on an old 486 laptop I had.
 
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Why not get pcmcia ethernet card and just send data over network?
I have seen people stack adapters , like PCMCIA->Compactflash->sd

You said you want to back up fdd, so what are you wanting to do with the PCMCIA slot?
If back up the hdd, just pull the drive and get an ide->usb adapter transfer kit for $15?

If you aim to boot from it I think it will not work, I tried once on an old 486 laptop I had.

I had a PCMCIA ethernet card once, but lost it somewhere in the ether....

Getting a Windows 3.1 machine to share network drives with a Windows XP/7 / Linux machine didn't work last time I tried.

Thats why I was wondering how viable it would be to store a bunch of my old floppies onto an SD card, and use a CompactFlash to read them using the PCMCIA slot.

By IDE to USB do you mean use the laptop HD as an external hard drive? I have a lead for doing just this, so that may be an option, load it up onto the HD via my other PC.

I just thought an SD card full of floppies might have been cool.

My aim is not to boot from it. I have DOS 7 / Win 3.1 and 95 installed. Any games that need a custom autoexec/config.sys can have a custom section on the HDD autoexec/config.sys boot.
 
Sorry if this subject has been posted before.

I was wondering if this would be possible...

My old Toshiba T2130CT floppy drive is gone, and I would like to use my desktop computer to back up all of my old floppy disks before they inevitably die too.

Is it possible to use a compact flash adaptor in the PCMCIA slot to access an SD card (2GB say) that is Fat16 formatted and therefore compatible with DOS/Win3.1/Win95?

Has anyone tried this?

Do you need to load specific drivers, or does it just treat it as another drive?

It should work fine, no extra drivers under Win9x (as long as its recognizing the PCMCIA slot). DOS/Win3x will be another story, you will need DOS PCMCIA card services drivers (usually laptop/mfg specific licensed), and accompanying PCMCIA mass storage driver.

The CF>SD adapters I have seen are pretty transparent, makes the SD card look like a CF memory card as far as the slot is concerned, no issues on that side usually, and no special driver concerns.
 
Yes, a PCMCIA Flash adapter will work. Most of the DOS card services packages have built-in drivers for "base" card types; in my experience, that includes all of the Flash adapters I've tried. As long as they're FAT16, they usually get mounted as the next available drive letter for DOS.
 
Let me see if I understand this...

Your old Toshiba is the one with win3.1/95 on it? And 95 should be able to see/read your 3.1 partition, yes?

Then a PCMCIA network card would be easy enough to enable in 95... and you should then be able to transfer BOTH partitions of data thru it.

Of course, lets not forget the dos-based INTERLNK/INTERSVR parallel-port transfer system... it has been quite useful for me with my older machines that have no PCMCIA (826-386 laptops)...
However, Im using a dedicated DOS6.22 drive for saving all the 'truly-old' stuff... but that is how Im doing most of it. Things I need to transfer to/from the Win7 box(es) are done thru USB floppy...
Mostly. :rolleyes;
:D
 
Thanks all for your answers, I might give it a go!

Let me see if I understand this...

Your old Toshiba is the one with win3.1/95 on it? And 95 should be able to see/read your 3.1 partition, yes?

Then a PCMCIA network card would be easy enough to enable in 95... and you should then be able to transfer BOTH partitions of data thru it.

Of course, lets not forget the dos-based INTERLNK/INTERSVR parallel-port transfer system... it has been quite useful for me with my older machines that have no PCMCIA (826-386 laptops)...
However, Im using a dedicated DOS6.22 drive for saving all the 'truly-old' stuff... but that is how Im doing most of it. Things I need to transfer to/from the Win7 box(es) are done thru USB floppy...
Mostly. :rolleyes;
:D

The Win3.1 and Win95 are installed on the same hard drive, same partition. Just different directories.

I did once network the machine, about 10 years ago. Used for basic web browsing and typing up essays.

I do have a Cisco Aeronet wireless card that works on my Thinkpad 380Z. It has DOS drivers too....
 
My first thought...why not just use a compactflash card? Then no worries about adapter compatibilities...

If you have Windows 95, an Orinoco wireless card like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucent-ORIN...092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337ced4ed4

Should work fine. I used to use one with an old Windows 95 laptop I had...also used them at work back when they were current technology. Of course they are only 802.11b...and no WPA encryption, etc. I have one that has a different brand name (maybe Lucent rather than Orinoco? Can't remember exactly now), but they were apparently made in more than one version of markings, etc. Not sure if drivers are easily found or not, but I've got them and the client manager stored away if anyone needs it...

Wesley
 
My first thought...why not just use a compactflash card? Then no worries about adapter compatibilities...

If you have Windows 95, an Orinoco wireless card like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucent-ORIN...092?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337ced4ed4

Should work fine. I used to use one with an old Windows 95 laptop I had...also used them at work back when they were current technology. Of course they are only 802.11b...and no WPA encryption, etc. I have one that has a different brand name (maybe Lucent rather than Orinoco? Can't remember exactly now), but they were apparently made in more than one version of markings, etc. Not sure if drivers are easily found or not, but I've got them and the client manager stored away if anyone needs it...

Wesley

If you are looking to network over WIFI, the Cisco Aironet 350 cards are fantastic as well, drivers for just about any OS: DOS, Win3x, Win9x, classic Macintosh, WinCE (PDAs & Thin clients).

Also only 802.11b and WEP encryption like the Orinoco's, but they work on literally almost anything with a PCMCIA or 16-bit ISA slot (there were PCMCIA>ISA adapters sold with some as a desktop kit).

Wesley, the Orinoco cards were sold as AT&T, Lucent, and Avaya (all name progressions/spin offs of the companies Communications/PBX product lines), plus SEVERAL 3rd parties licensed the chipset/design and made/sold these cards too.

EDIT: FYI there are Orinoco SILVER, and GOLD cards, difference is silver does 64-bit WEP, gold does 128-bit. With some hackery its possible to firmware flash a silver to a gold, the actual hardware is identical.
 
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