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#11
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Michael Black wrote in
news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1411182340120.12273@darkstar. example.org: On Tue, 18 Nov 2014, Flasherly wrote: On 18 Nov 2014 15:48:41 GMT, "AL_n" wrote: I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Coming through the PCMCIA with a device to transfer to reach the HD is one way. Say a usb pcmcia card, a controller...all kinds of those sorts of things, maybe a little cheaper than a floppy. YOu can get a PCMCIA to CompactFlash card adapter, and then get a CompactFlash card. Or a PCMCIA to ethernet card, or PCMCIA to modem card. Or a PCMCIA wifi card. The problem is, will they be easy to get at this point, when the PCMCIA bus is long gone from laptops? ONe may have to track them down, and i'm not sure if they'd be cheap or expensive (depending on whether the seller decides nobody wants them, or decides they are now hard to get so the price should go up). I know I have Powerbook 1400 and though I'm not likely to really use it at this point, I have bought PCMCIA cards at garage sales for a dollar each or so. So I have that modem, and I did get that wifi card. I was at one sale that had some ethernet cards, and as I was walking away, the guy rushed after me and gave me a couple of others. I think that was the place that had the PCMCIA to CompactFlash card, with a relatively small COmpactFlash card in it, but it wsa one of those things with built in wifi, which has potential. So long as the hard drive uses the IDE interface (I'm thinking it's likely that old, what with PCMCIA and no ethernet), I'd just get it out of there and connect it to a computer with an IDE interface. Lots of old computers around that do that, cheap if you just need to get the data off the drive. But I've just opened up my main computer and hooked up an IDE drive externally, just connect the IDE connector and a power connector, leaving the drive outside the box for the brief time it takes to copy the drive. Michael Hi there, Yes, PCMCIA flash card readers are easily available, but not very cheaply. A PCMCIA-wifi card seems to be a cheaper option - ar a PCMCIA- ethernet card. As for connecting the hard drive to a desctop PC with IDE may be an option. I will have to start digging through my garage in search of an old PC that didn't get thrown away. Thanks... Al |
#12
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
"AL_n" wrote in message ... VanguardLH wrote in : AL_n wrote: PS, the full list of ports on the Compaq Armada 4220T is as follows: 1 x PCMCIA 1 x keyboard / mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) 1 x docking / port replicator - 176 pin docking 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) 1 x microphone - input - mini-phone mono 3.5 mm 1 x serial - RS-232C - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x display / video - composite video output 1 x audio - line-in - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm and 1 x infrared - IrDA (according to the online handbook, though I've never discovered it!) And what ports are available on the OTHER computer? There is software that will let you do serial-to-serial port file transfers. See http://www.bing.com/search?q=file%20...0serial%20port. You cannot connect this old laptop to a network? You did not list an Ethernet port. If there is no RJ-45 Ethernet port, doesn't that laptop have a PCMCIA slot? If so, get a PCMCIA Ethernet card (http://www.citylabinfo.com/410-943-t...ia-ethernet-ca rd.jpg, example only). Are you posting here using the old laptop? If so, it is already hooked up to a network. If the old laptop can be networked, why not use file sharing over your intranet to transfer files from host to host? If you are connecting only one computer to however you connect to your ISP (dial-up, DSL, cable modem) then you will need to add a router so you can have multiple computers connected to the Internet plus those computers can be networked together on your intranet (LAN side of the router). I take it the old laptop doesn't have an inbuilt CD-R optical drive so you could use sneakernet to transfer files. Thanks for your helpful suggestions. The old laptop has no internet connectivity at present. Unfortunately my PC doesn;t have a serial socket, so good suggestion about serial-to-serial data transfer is not an option. I guess my best bet may be to get a PCMCIA ethernet port card,per your last suggestion. You can get a serial port-to-USB adapter fairly cheap: http://preview.tinyurl.com/o8qejcj I have this one that I bought to connect my automobile code reader to my PC so I can D/L the data logs. Works well for that anyhow :-) There are also ethernet-to-serial adapters. We used those for telnet-ing into our routers for flash updates and programming. Don't know how well that would work in your circumstance, though. -- SC Tom |
#13
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Paul wrote in :
"Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter Converter" $2.36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119245 "Cables To Go Laptop to IDE Hard Drive Adapter Cable - 2.5" Laptop to 3.5" Desktop" $4.99 http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=016080 The reason I list two of them, is I could order one online for 2.36 plus shipping, or drive to a brick and mortar store like the second entry, and get it today for $5. Great suggestion - thanks. I have ordered such an adapter today and hope it arrives by Saturday. It may be my best option. In terms of "exposures" with such an adapter, the pins on the adapter can be bent, if you're not careful. Some of the older 80 wire IDE cables have reasonably lubricated connectors and won't fight too much. I have some more modern IDE cables with higher insertion force. The adapter doesn't give any protection to the pins. (Some other IDE connector formats have the plastic box around the pins to protect them.) The power connector is the other weak point. The pins in the connector will flop around, so you have to wiggle them a bit to get the power connector in your USB housing, to mesh with the adapter power connector. The adapter power connector only has two pins, because the small laptop drives just use the +5V power source. Whereas, the larger 3.5" drives use both +5V and +12V, and have a couple ground pins as well. That's why the adapter doesn't have all the pins on its power connector. They're not needed. You can probably find a pinout diagram online, to understand why the 44 pin and 40 pin, not all the pins get connected. The extra pins on the 44 pin were intended for power, which is why the power cable goes on the pins on one end of the connector. This could be useful to know. Much appreciated! ******* A cheaper still solution, would depend on materials on hand. I have a collection of RS232 cabling, null modem cables, male to female adapters, 9 to 25 pin adapters, the works. My bag of junk is probably worth a hundred bucks at one time. I used to use that to get myself out of a jam at work, but I've also used it to join balky computers together here at home. For example, I can boot a Linux computer, point the console port output to the serial port, then use Hyperterm on the Windows PC, to talk to the Linux computer. If the Linux computer has a bug and freezes, I can then use the Hyperterm port to test whether the machine is responsive. This is typically used if Xwindows has a focus/selection bug (and the GUI freezes), or dbus dies and the mouse/keyboard on the Linux machine stop working. Frequently, the CPU is still running, and all that is needed is a working software path. So if you had another computer with a serial port, you'd need a "rolled" cable (null modem cable), so the tx and rx get flipped from one end of the cable to the other. As far as I can remember, a regular cable is intended for connection between a DCE and a DTE. To connect two similar devices (two computers over serial port), you need a null modem dongle to swap the wiring. Once that is done, two computers can be connected together, and talk over Hyperterm. I remember doing the above once, back in the days when all PCs had serial ports. Unfortunately my presnt PC doesn't have one, but I may have an old PC buried in the garage buried under tons of junk... But that's the weak part of this plan. You have no way to get software into the computer. No working network connection. The floppy used to be your "port of entry", but it is broken. The laptop does have a CD-rom drive, so I can get executables onto the laptop this way. It's possible to set up networking over IRDA. I wondered about that - but, like you, I've never used an IRDA port before. I've never used an IRDA port, so don't know the details. There are USB to IRDA dongles to plug into a modern PC, to give you a "receiving end" on the other PC. There may be a red plastic lens or aperture on the Armada. That is a possibility. I may have a search for some kind of user manual on how to use the IRDA feature of the laptop. The fun part, is data rate. A proper (good) IRDA runs at 4Mbit/sec. Which is 0.5MB/sec. That would give a painful but useful transfer rate, to get off a few valuable files. The motherboards I have here, came with IRDA headers, but they use the slower rate. I think the best those motherboard ones could manage, is 115Kbit/sec. Which is really not all that much better than a modem. The main advantage, is if the OS happens to have a TCP/IP stack to run over IRDA. (only if you're interested) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_Data_Association I'm grateful that you mentioned that; I think I may have one of those dongles somewhere! Does Win95 have file sharing ? Working on that method, would only be worthwhile if you knew for sure the whole protocol stack was present. Just too many details. ******* They made ZIP drives with parallel connectors on them. YES! That's a VERY good point! I could buy one of those on ebay for about $10... So right now, from this distance, the $5 adapter purchased from a local computer store is looking the most practical. if you pay yourself $5 an hour to work on computers, I cannot imagine any of the other methods being done in an hour. You'd need to do at least an hour's worth of online research first. That's the thing! Whenever I have gotten into dismantling my desktop in order to achieve something, I find I end up using up loads of time, so I always try and find ready-made solutions that you just plug-in and use. Your zip drive suggestion strikes me as being a quick and easy option, albeit slightly more expensive than the IDE adapter suggestion. One way of another, I will get that data off the laptop, and now feel confident that it can be done without too much more time-consuming fiddling around and gambling away my loose change! Many thanks indeed for your detailed and helpful input. This newsgroup seems to be as excellent as it ever was! A fine tradition upheld... Long may it go on! Al |
#14
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
VanguardLH wrote in :
If there aren't many files and not too big, just e-mail them as attachments to yourself. Thank you. Yes, this had accurred to me as an option. If I can get hold of a PCMCIA-ethernet adapter and successfully get it working on the laptop, I will do that. Otherwise I will pull the hard drive and connect it to an old IDE desktop, if I can find the one I think I have somewhere. Much appreciated... Al |
#15
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
"SC Tom" wrote in :
You can get a serial port-to-USB adapter fairly cheap: http://preview.tinyurl.com/o8qejcj I have one - but could not find a driver that will work under Windows 98. There is one that claims to work under W98SE - but it doesn't! I have this one that I bought to connect my automobile code reader to my PC so I can D/L the data logs. Works well for that anyhow :-) There are also ethernet-to-serial adapters. We used those for telnet-ing into our routers for flash updates and programming. Don't know how well that would work in your circumstance, though. One thing I do have is a PCMCIA 56K modem (minus the cable). Does anyone know if it is still possible to access the internet using TCP/IP (dial-up protocol, as per the days of yore)? That is, via a typical 21st century broadband internet provider...? Al |
#16
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Paul wrote in :
It's possible to set up networking over IrDA. I've never used an IRDA port, so don't know the details. The old Compaq 4220T laptop in question, has infrared (IrDA), and so does my Nokia e90 mobile phone. In theory, I should be able to transfer the required files from the laptop's hard drive onto the E90 phone. The phone has as a micro-SD card, so I can plug the micro-SD card into my desktop PC and transfer the files that way, after the files are transferred onto the phone's sd card. However, it seems easier said than done; I have IR switched on, on both devices, but the the laptop is not finding the phone even though it's in close range. Do the IR ports have to be within eyesight of each other? I cannot find any kind of IR lense or suchlike on either device. According to the laptop's user manual at: http://tinyurl.com/p4c9v9w , the laptop should detect the phone and then automatically transfer the necessary transfer software from it (I think). But it isn't happening. Laptop says "no infrared devics within range". Al |
#17
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
"AL_n" wrote in news:XnsA3EBAD644D40Azzzzzz@
130.133.4.11: , the laptop should detect the phone and then automatically transfer the necessary transfer software from it (I think). But it isn't happening. Laptop says "no infrared devics within range". PS.. it would help if I could find the actual physical IR sender/receiver on either device, but I can't... Weird! I'm not familiar with IrDA, but shouldn't there be some kind of red light-emitting LED or something visible on the phone and/or the laptop? Al |
#18
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
"AL_n" wrote in
: "AL_n" wrote in news:XnsA3EBAD644D40Azzzzzz@ 130.133.4.11: , the laptop should detect the phone and then automatically transfer the necessary transfer software from it (I think). But it isn't happening. Laptop says "no infrared devics within range". PS.. it would help if I could find the actual physical IR sender/receiver on either device, but I can't... Weird! I'm not familiar with IrDA, but shouldn't there be some kind of red light-emitting LED or something visible on the phone and/or the laptop? Al PS... Okay, I have located the IR port on each device (black shiny thing). Now I'm getting somewhere... Stay tuned.. Al |
#19
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
AL_n wrote:
"AL_n" wrote in : "AL_n" wrote in news:XnsA3EBAD644D40Azzzzzz@ 130.133.4.11: , the laptop should detect the phone and then automatically transfer the necessary transfer software from it (I think). But it isn't happening. Laptop says "no infrared devics within range". PS.. it would help if I could find the actual physical IR sender/receiver on either device, but I can't... Weird! I'm not familiar with IrDA, but shouldn't there be some kind of red light-emitting LED or something visible on the phone and/or the laptop? Al PS... Okay, I have located the IR port on each device (black shiny thing). Now I'm getting somewhere... Stay tuned.. Al Years ago, I got an "IR converter strip" from Radio Shack. It was around $5 or so. It is a strip of stiff plastic, with a "brown patch" on one end. You "charge up" the strip by holding it next to an incandescent light (presumably energetic UV from the light, does the charging). Then, you hold the IR strip next to the lens of the optical device, to "sniff" for infrared. For example, TV remotes, you can see them pulse when the button on the remote is pushed. The brown patch gives off visible light, after it is charged, and then the strip is hit by the infrared. It's a means to make infrared visible. ******* A second way to debug infrared, is with silicon based cameras. I have a surveillance camera that can pick up infrared, as the sensitivity goes out into the infrared. That camera happens to be a black and white camera. I can see the pulsations of a TV remote with the surveillance camera. You could search for the infrared emitter that way. Color surveillance cameras, have an infrared filter on the optical path. This is for "color balance" in sunlight. Still, you might be able to spot a light source with the camera, even if it is filtering a lot of the infrared light. I did a search on "IRDA wavelength", and a patent mentions 875nm. I think a silicon camera can see out to 1100nm or so. This is an example of an IR illuminator, for a parking lot. This one emits at 850nm, so the LEDs here would be similar to the IRDA ones. Unlike an incandescent lamp with an IR gel filter over it, a human shouldn't be able to see this. That's why they're using infrared. The old fashioned illuminators, you could see a dull red glow if you looked into the thing. http://www.supercircuits.com/accesso...luminator-ir34 LEDs don't have a very sharp output wavelength, so when I say 850nm, the optical peak is a bit on the broad side. Unlike a laser, which has a very narrow ("pure") color. The LEDs are sloppy. You should hold the devices within a foot of one another, with optical ports facing, for best results. If there is any question about the health or power level of one of them, that might help. And hope they both have the protocol stack to talk to one another. Have fun, Paul |
#20
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Paul wrote in :
Then, you hold the IR strip next to the lens of the optical device, to "sniff" for infrared. For example, TV remotes, you can see them pulse when the button on the remote is pushed. The brown patch gives off visible light, after it is charged, and then the strip is hit by the infrared. It's a means to make infrared visible. Fascinating! I think I was confused because the IR emitters on my security cameras at home are actually visible, but I guess that's so that burglars have something they can visibly see. The IR emitters on my phone and old laptop are obviously using true (invisible) IR. Anyway, I am ustterly elated!!!! I have done what I needed to do! I had no luck transferring the files using my Nokia E90 phone, but my old HTC Blue Angel phone, running Windows Mobile was what did work, (after a lot of trial and error and device-jiggling, puzzling and fretting! When the IR connection was finally set up, all of my three critical Word files transferred accross within about three minutes! Getting these vital files onto my desktop has saved me a massive amount of work! Best of all, it cost me nothing and took me a mere hour or so to do. And I evern learned something useful in the process: how easy to transfer files using IR or bluetooth. WOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! (as Homer, the famous Greek philosopher said) Thanks so much to all who advised on this one. I am so relieved!! Al |
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