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Windows 95 direct cable connection to Win XP / 7 using USB to Serial cable

When trying to read a floppy all you can hear is faint buzz, looks like the heads are not even trying to read the disk. Its possible that a bad disk caused damage, however all of the 3.5" floppies that I was using on that machine were less than 12 months old (3M, found a shop that still sells them).
No, you've had them for 12 months! They're 10 to 15 years old or more. I have sealed boxes of 3M 3.5" disks in the basement that I know are over 20 years old because I've had them at least that long. :) Try cleaning the heads -- it can't hurt.
 
No, you've had them for 12 months! They're 10 to 15 years old or more. I have sealed boxes of 3M 3.5" disks in the basement that I know are over 20 years old because I've had them at least that long. :) Try cleaning the heads -- it can't hurt.

True, they probably were sitting in the shop for a while before I bought them. I might give cleaning the heads a go. Still no luck with direct cable connection though. As a last resort might try and set up an instance of Windows 95 under VirtualBox, and try connecting to the virtual machine. Did a quick read yesterday, and it looks like it is possible to map host's serial ports in VirtualBox, has anyone tried this approach?
 
Hi Simke, what are you actually trying to achieve? Do you want to just get the data off the old drive, or are you looking for some form of general comms longer term or something else? If you just need something short term, I have a Realtek PCMCIA network card around somewhere that I could probably loan if I can find the thing.
 
...Still no luck with direct cable connection though.
Any reason why you haven't tried Interlink or something similar? They're pretty well equivalent to DCC over serial or parallel without some of DCC's complications and it sounds like you already have a cable and a 'server' with legacy serial and parallel ports...
 
Hi Simke, what are you actually trying to achieve? Do you want to just get the data off the old drive, or are you looking for some form of general comms longer term or something else? If you just need something short term, I have a Realtek PCMCIA network card around somewhere that I could probably loan if I can find the thing.

All I'm trying is to get DCC going using hardware / cables that I already have. As for the network card, I won't be able to install drivers since floppy drive is not working any more - if I do sort that out then I'll get PCMCIA card off eBay, as I was planning to do that already:)
 
Any reason why you haven't tried Interlink or something similar? They're pretty well equivalent to DCC over serial or parallel without some of DCC's complications and it sounds like you already have a cable and a 'server' with legacy serial and parallel ports...

Again, without a working floppy drive I have no way of copying interlink exe onto laptop:) Looks like I'll need to sort that out first, either fix the drive / replace / get IDE CF reader. Once I do that, I'll just get a network card off eBay.
 
Again, without a working floppy drive I have no way of copying interlink exe onto laptop:) Looks like I'll need to sort that out first, either fix the drive / replace / get IDE CF reader. Once I do that, I'll just get a network card off eBay.
You don't need a working fdd. You can remote transfer the needed files via com port or parallel file transfer cables ie null modem or laplink cables. You can do the same with a number of other file transfer utilities as well.
 
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You don't need a working fdd. You can remote transfer the needed files via com port or parallel file transfer cables ie null modem or laplink cables. You can do the same with a number of other file transfer utilities as well.
Yeah, folks tend to miss the part about it being
a way to transfer files when no compatible disk drives are available
as I said in my original post #12. (Remote install only works over the com port though).

Seems to me that since he's got the cable(s) and com ports this would solve not only the transfer issue but also give him a way to install the NIC drivers, but he'd apparently prefer to do it another way... ;-)
 
Seems so. But hey a wee prompt here n there and it might get through in the end. Another parallel file transfer cable last week for few dollars. Just couldn't resist. Seems no one is interested in them any more.
 
Seems so. But hey a wee prompt here n there and it might get through in the end. Another parallel file transfer cable last week for few dollars. Just couldn't resist. Seems no one is interested in them any more.
I think Chuck has a closet full of those cables...

OP did say early on that his floppy drive wasn't working, which is of course why I'm suggesting Interlink to get started.
 
You don't need a working fdd. You can remote transfer the needed files via com port or parallel file transfer cables ie null modem or laplink cables. You can do the same with a number of other file transfer utilities as well.

Right, didn't know I could do that - should be reading a bit more carefully:) Will give it a go.
 
Depending on the situation, if I get stuck with the old 'Chicken and Egg' situation, one solution is to yank the HDD out, stick it on the USB-IDE adaptor, copy over the files I need from my main machine and then put the HDD back. It usually a quick process and it's done.

Not sure if this might be of any use to you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142324
 
Depending on the situation, if I get stuck with the old 'Chicken and Egg' situation, one solution is to yank the HDD out, stick it on the USB-IDE adaptor, copy over the files I need from my main machine and then put the HDD back. It usually a quick process and it's done.

Not sure if this might be of any use to you.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142324

Tried that actually the other day - opened up the laptop and removed the hard drive. However, couldn't connect it to the IDE cable in USB-IDE enclosure, as the pins on the hard drive were just slightly closer together (?) than on the full size hard drive. Didn't want to try and force it too much for fear of breaking the pins.
 
Tried that actually the other day - opened up the laptop and removed the hard drive. However, couldn't connect it to the IDE cable in USB-IDE enclosure, as the pins on the hard drive were just slightly closer together (?) than on the full size hard drive. Didn't want to try and force it too much for fear of breaking the pins.
The pinouts aren't the same anyway. The 5V and 12V leads are incorporated into the laptop drive's connector. I got an adapter for under $5 that does the conversion nicely.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390200934056?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

The alternative is to get a laptop drive enclosure.
 
I have the same USB adapter. My only complaint is that the bridge chip hates small IDE drives. Anything under about 2GB in size won't work with the adapter.
 
I have the same USB adapter. My only complaint is that the bridge chip hates small IDE drives. Anything under about 2GB in size won't work with the adapter.
I don't recall having any great problems with small drives and I use it quite a lot, though it's possible I just changed to my other unit and didn't think about it. I think I've had a couple of times where I've used my other unit, as this one wouldn't do something, but it's pretty rare (at least as I recall) and I frequently deal with old small HDD's. I do have another unit which is an External IDE HDD case - USB that I just use as an IDE to USB for both 2.5 and 3.5 and I do tend to prefer it for the old drives, it seems a bit quicker and smoother and does connect easier - sometimes the Vantec won't connect and has to be disconnected and reconnected a couple of times. I'll try to take more notice next time.
 
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