- Jan 29, 2016
- 28
- 0
- 10,540
Hello,
For the past couple of days, I've been trying to copy information from an old Windows 98 PC to a modern day system. Long story short, this computer was found alongside custom-made control circuitry for an antenna system, and the configuration files and software for this custom-made system only exists on this drive. As such, I need to copy it off. However, I can't for the life of me get data off of this computer, and I need help. For context, the computer does boot into Windows 98 and run without errors; no signs of drive failure or anything like that from the OS side. There's also no USB ports of any kind on it. Here's what I've tried:
Using an IDE to USB Bridge:
Tried on Linux, macOS, and Windows machines. Always get an I/O device error no matter how I try to access it. This USB to IDE bridge has always worked without a hitch for me, so I doubt that the bridge is the culprit.
Networking:
I spent ~6 hours trying to configure the Ethernet card on the system to no avail, and accidentally uninstalled it completely with no way to re-attach drivers.
Direct Cable Connection (via Serial):
I got this to work with a null modem cable and a Windows 98 VM, but on top of an estimate time of 26 hours of continuous file transfer, the system only gets through a handful of files before dropping the connection. While theoretically possible, this isn't viable
Floppy Disks:
Same thing with DCC- too long to copy, not to mention files >1.4MB are off the table.
CD-ROM:
The drive in the system is read-only, and in installing a new working DVD-ROM that can read and write, the system shows out a "Device is busy" error whenever I try to run a program to burn the disk
I'm at a loss as to how to retrieve this data. I spent 2 hours just copying drivers over via floppy to get DCC to work, and I'm out of ideas. I need these configuration files, but I don't have the means to send this drive off to a data specialist to copy the info off of. And given that it's still bootable, it can't possibly be corrupted so bad as to be completely unmountable by all three major modern-day OSes. At this point, I'm debating scrolling through every file on the system and slowly taking them off via floppy. But given that I'm operating the whole thing via mouse keys (No PS/2 mouse port and we don't have a serial mouse), that would double the already 20+ hours I've sunk into this machine.
Any advice at all would be appreciated! If it is drive failure, I'm comfortable with any one-time methods to get the data off (i.e. put the drive out in the cold). It's only a 1GB drive, and it's only about half full, and once the data is safely off of it it could get hit with a hammer for all I care.
For the past couple of days, I've been trying to copy information from an old Windows 98 PC to a modern day system. Long story short, this computer was found alongside custom-made control circuitry for an antenna system, and the configuration files and software for this custom-made system only exists on this drive. As such, I need to copy it off. However, I can't for the life of me get data off of this computer, and I need help. For context, the computer does boot into Windows 98 and run without errors; no signs of drive failure or anything like that from the OS side. There's also no USB ports of any kind on it. Here's what I've tried:
Using an IDE to USB Bridge:
Tried on Linux, macOS, and Windows machines. Always get an I/O device error no matter how I try to access it. This USB to IDE bridge has always worked without a hitch for me, so I doubt that the bridge is the culprit.
Networking:
I spent ~6 hours trying to configure the Ethernet card on the system to no avail, and accidentally uninstalled it completely with no way to re-attach drivers.
Direct Cable Connection (via Serial):
I got this to work with a null modem cable and a Windows 98 VM, but on top of an estimate time of 26 hours of continuous file transfer, the system only gets through a handful of files before dropping the connection. While theoretically possible, this isn't viable
Floppy Disks:
Same thing with DCC- too long to copy, not to mention files >1.4MB are off the table.
CD-ROM:
The drive in the system is read-only, and in installing a new working DVD-ROM that can read and write, the system shows out a "Device is busy" error whenever I try to run a program to burn the disk
I'm at a loss as to how to retrieve this data. I spent 2 hours just copying drivers over via floppy to get DCC to work, and I'm out of ideas. I need these configuration files, but I don't have the means to send this drive off to a data specialist to copy the info off of. And given that it's still bootable, it can't possibly be corrupted so bad as to be completely unmountable by all three major modern-day OSes. At this point, I'm debating scrolling through every file on the system and slowly taking them off via floppy. But given that I'm operating the whole thing via mouse keys (No PS/2 mouse port and we don't have a serial mouse), that would double the already 20+ hours I've sunk into this machine.
Any advice at all would be appreciated! If it is drive failure, I'm comfortable with any one-time methods to get the data off (i.e. put the drive out in the cold). It's only a 1GB drive, and it's only about half full, and once the data is safely off of it it could get hit with a hammer for all I care.
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