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Looking for an old Windows program to transfer files from PC to PC

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6885P5H

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Québec, Canada
Hello. I am looking for a Windows program that could transfer files from my IBM PC 750 running Windows 95 to my HP Pavilion P6820 running Windows 7 via a serial lapLink cable. I have tried LapLink 3 and it did run on my Windows 7 machine but the program kept encountering timeout errors and because of that? The files arrived on my HP a bit corrupted. Meaning I would have to manually fix every files with an hex editor once the transfer would be complete... I am guessing the program encounters these timeout errors because of how much faster the HP is compared to the IBM (100-somethingMHz Pentium 1 CPU to 3300MHz Pentium E6800...)? Anyway even if LapLink 3 worked flawlessly it is a DOS program and thus does not support long filenames (yes this is important). So I am looking for a similar program that would support long filenames, would run on both Windows 95 and 7 and would have a way to deal with timeout errors so I don't end up with corrupted files?
 
I've done that under XP with Interlink on the XT and the file transfer program on XP. See here. I don't know if this was included in Win7, but it might be worth investigating.
 
Windows 7 does not have the Direct Cable Connection option. That ended with XP. Laplink versions intended for Windows 7 don't support serial ports.

I think loading a terminal emulator program on both machines would work. HyperTerminal on Windows 95 supports many error correcting transfer protocols. There is an updated HyperTerminal that will work on Win 7 which might be what you need. 30 day trial http://www.hilgraeve.com/hyperterminal-trial/
 
The old INTERLNK DOS program? That probably doesn't support long filenames though but maybe I could try...

So if I ran INTERLNK on the Windows 95 machine and I had XP on my main one I could transfer files?

I don't think I need a program intended for Windows 7... Just one that will work on it. LapLink 3 wasn't intended for Windows 7 and yet sort of worked...

Alright HyperTerminal appears to work fine but it doesn't seem like it can transfer folders and dates. Yes this is important...
 
6885P5H said:
Hello. I am looking for a Windows program that could transfer files from my IBM PC 750 running Windows 95 to my HP Pavilion P6820 running Windows 7 via a serial lapLink cable. I have tried LapLink 3 and it did run on my Windows 7 machine but the program kept encountering timeout errors and because of that?
Click to expand...
Although you have now ruled out LapLink 3 (because of no long filename support), you may be interested to know that the 'timeout' issue is known of - see [here].

It is possible to overcome (see [here] for an example), but in my experience, requires that the modern PC have a 'real' serial port rather than the use of a USB-to-serial adapter. In my opinion, another DOS-to-modern-Windows solution, FastLynx 3.3, turned out to be a better solution (see [here]), but again, may not work if a USB-to-serial adapter is used.

6885P5H said:
Alright HyperTerminal appears to work fine but it doesn't seem like it can transfer folders and dates. Yes this is important...
Click to expand...
FastLynx 3.3 may be an answer. Website is at [here]. I have not tried it myself for what you are tring to achieve (Windows 95 to Windows7).
 
If you're running Win95B or later, you can probably archive all of your files up (long filenames included) using an old copy of RAR, then just transfer the archive file and un-archive.
 
Why not just throw in a network card, and share a folder on your Windows 95 machine?

Even Windows 10 (yuck) can access that. Although I forget if 95 requires the Win95 NTLM 2 update from the "active directory" add on.
 
SomeGuy said:
Why not just throw in a network card, and share a folder on your Windows 95 machine?

Even Windows 10 (yuck) can access that. Although I forget if 95 requires the Win95 NTLM 2 update from the "active directory" add on.
Click to expand...

I think Win95 predates NTLMv2 and NTLMv2 has been a requirement by default since Vista. This can be changed with a registry key though.
 
Winrar and HyperTerminal, that seems to work great. What a shame HyperTerminal isn't bundled with Windows anymore... Too bad finding an hex editor with file comparison capabilities that works with Windows 95 is proving to be impossible... Even the ones that say they work with 95 do not because of DLL errors. That would've let me verify if every bytes really get transferred correctly over the connection. Guess I'm gonna have to trust the connection huh.
 
FastLynx 3.3

It's not free, but it also comes with a DOS client (optional) and a bundled version of FastLynx 2.0 for DOS to boot.
Will do Windows 7 no problem, serial, parallel and USB transfers. Haven't tried running the client on Win95, but there is a free trial available.

Edit: alternatively just use Windows networking. The Windows 7 computer will be able to see the Windows 95 computer no problem and drop files on it over the network.
 
I used to use the file transfer built in pcanywhere. tightvnc for newer windows anyway supports file transfer, dunno if tightvnc works on w95 though, vnc came about a little later. Also played with Kermit and procomm plus for file transfer in those days.

If you try raw transfer over serial, make sure handshaking is properly set up, correct cable, etc.
 
found this post from the era: http://www.engr.unl.edu/computing/workstation/file-transfer.html

I had to transfer stuff from a DEC 11/34a with DSM-11 v3 to a pc, and found a MUMPS Kermit and used DOS kermit. After much fiddling, it worked. It was a one-time adventure so the process wasn't that smooth, but ultimately I got a few mb file over from mumps to dos.

Oh yeah, it was over a serial connection @9600 baud with x-on/x-off on both ends. As I recall, the DEC end didn't support any hardware handshaking.
 
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