I bought a PC in 1999 when I started university. It became obsolete a few years ago and I got a new laptop. Its been sitting in my spare room since then.
It runs windows 98 and at the moment only boots up in Safe Mode. I've had a couple of techy friends have a look at it and they can't get it to start in full Windows 98.
I've got some data on this computer which I'd really like to transfer over to my new laptop: photos, music and my thesis
As the computer is only booting up in safe mode I can't use the cd burner to copy the data onto CD.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
One possibility is running the hard drive as a 2nd hard drive with my laptop or a friend's desktop and then just copy and pasting the data across.
Another option is something like this which someone suggested. Not sure if it will be compatible with an 8 year old hard drive - any way i could check this?
thanks for your help
The first option will work.
The second option should also work, it should still be compatible despite being old.
You can also try transferring the files to USB flash memory (or an MP3 player if it appears in Explorer as a USB mass storage device), but you may need to install a driver under Windows 98 and it might not let you do this in safe mode.
Personally, I'd go with the first option, using your friends desktop PC to migrate the data you require.
The interface option would also work but you can save GBP 9 by using the 1st choice.
Cheers
Zoltan
yeah plug the harddrive into a friend's desktop. It should be the easiest to get to work.
The option with USB converter / software will not work easily because if your computer refuses to boot properly, it is doubtful whether you can add anything that requires driver software.
Another option would be to use a Linux live CD like Knoppix.
You could boot the computer into Knoppix by putting the Knoppix CD into the CD drive and booting from it. Knoppix is an alternate operating system that runs just in your computer's memory without touching the hard drive.
You can then hook up an external hard drive (FAT formatted) to the computer through USB and use Knoppix to copy your files from your laptop's hard drive to the external hard drive.
There are instructions on how to burn a Linux live CD on my Linux site in my signature.
If my explanation doesn't make sense and you would like to try it. let me know and I'll explain the steps in more detail.
thanks for the replies.
i think i'll just go for the USB hard drive connection - small cash outlay but then i don't have to lug someone's desktop back to my place or worry about using Linux. Basically its the easiest option for me.
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