Can I have help moving data from an old Windows 98 desktop PC to my new Windows 10 PC?

Anonymous
2019-04-29T19:48:42+00:00

I've got this really old Gateway desktop PC that started life as a Windows 95 or earlier (I forget) that I'm wanting to get rid of. It's been sitting unused forever and I disconnected it from my home network years ago when I needed more places to plug stuff into my router since I have 2 Windows XP machines & 2 Windows 10 machines on it.

That old Gateway PC has a 3-1/2" floppy drive that I don't have any discs for and never will, along with a CD drive, a DVD drive and I just discovered that it even has 2 USB ports on the back that I never knew existed.

I've tried endlessly to save the 500mb of Photos and Docs on it onto either a CD or DVD but from all I can tell, they both must be broken or at least maybe the formatting of the discs that I do in a drive on my Windows 10 DELL isn't correct.

Heck, during the formatting process, I even thought that since I'm wanting to use the CD in that old beast Gateway thing, I should set the File System setting from UDF 2.01 (Default) to UDF 1.50, thinking I should use the oldest one it had.

Nothing has worked and I've tried reformatting & Copy/Pasting a bunch of times.

Oddly, it will seem like it is writing to a CD and it shows it stepping thru the Videos, Photos and Docs, but I'll always keep hearing the drive's motor start & stop every 5 or 10 seconds & then if I wait long enough, it does finally show all of the files.

But it's totally weird that if I put another blank CD in that same drive, it shows as if all those same files are on it too.

Weird. That must be some flaw in that old Windows 98 Operating System I guess.

I'd at first tried sticking a USB adapter with a flash card in, thinking that would be super quick. But, it wasn't recognized and something told me that it needed a driver, which isn't possible to get on that PC since it isn't connected anymore to the internet.

So, sorry about all this talk but after spending countless hours, I've concluded that it might be best & easiest to just bring that old PC into my home office & park it next to this Windows 10 DELL Inspirion, hook them together somehow directly with a USB cable instead of thru the router, and then maybe I could just access the old PC's drive and Copy my data off of it.

After all, then I can either burn it onto a tiny flash card or just let it stay on my D: hard drive on this where all of my data is. My C: with Windows & my programs is an SSD to make it super fast.

So, I've rambled on but I do need some basic help in knowing that the old hard drive will be able to be accessed by my new PC if I just connect them with a USB cable or will I need to have a keyboard, mouse and monitor on the old PC too?

I've put this in Windows > Windows 10 > Files, Folders & Storage but if an Admin thinks it should somewhere else, please feel free to move it. Thanks for any help. :-)

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2019-05-09T00:37:19+00:00

Did you chose the correct USB drivers for your edition of Win 98?

http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/usbmsd98.php

You stated earlier that the USB driver that you chose (downloaded) is nusb33e.exe. This is for Windows 98SE (Second Edition).

If this is the correct selection for your edition of Win 98 did you follow the installation instructions (found on the download page)?

http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/win98se-usb-mass-storage-drivers.php

Standard Disclaimer: Any non-Microsoft websites provided here appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for any ads on these sites that may advertise products frequently classified as PUP's (Potentially Unwanted Programs). Thoroughly research any product/program advertised on any site before you decide to download and install it.

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Anonymous
2019-05-08T03:47:50+00:00

First of all, what drive on the device is the drive letter E: associated with?

Why did you do both at the same time (one at a time is best practice, especially on and old outdated OS that is no longer supported (nor able to be updated past were it was when you stopped using it or updating it when updates were still available)).

At this point try shutting down then unplug the CD drive and the thumb drive then startup the device, then do a restart and give it 10 or fifteen minutes to stabilize, then plugin one of the (either the CD drive or the thumb drive, your choice) peripherals then let me know what happens. What do you then see in My Computer, System properties (Device Manager?) etc..

Let me know.

-Richard

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-05-07T01:03:44+00:00

    I apologize for my putting anything unnecessary on here but maybe my mentioning my having those Iomega CD-RW (DVD-ROM) disc drives could bail me out quickly without my needing to buy anything since I do already have that USB Thumbdrive driver burned onto both a CD & a DVD and yet I can't seem to find a single 3-1/2" floppy disc in my pile to Copy it onto, so I would have had to buy a box of 10 on Amazon (I couldn't find floppy discs anywhere on the Fry's site).

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-08T00:00:17+00:00

    Today, I started by plugging the Iomega CD-RW player into the Windows 98 Gateway in a USB port. It didn't

    Plug-N-Play (be recognized, installed, and function).

    Instead, it popped that Add New Hardware Wizard when I plugged it in. After I let it Search at some E:\Driver\Win9x that it had pre-filled in the bottom box and it didn't find anything it could use.

    I searched online using my newer DELL and I found the driver for the Iomega CD-RW for Windows 98, which is win98usb2drv-w32-x86-1020.exe, and I downloaded it.

    I found it at https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=1117226 under

    File Name

    win98usb2drv-w32-x86-1020.exe (15.1 MB)

    which is a tiny blue link that's down a ways, just above the big green button. I say all that since they love to hide things to make you unwittingly click on stuff that seems like it's what you wanted when you went to that site.

    I then Saved that file onto a CD that already had the USB Drive driver file on it which is nusb33e.exe.

    I put that CD into the CD drive in the old Gateway that has been problematic and today it was working fine. So, I double-clicked each of them which had me agree to licensing & then they installed. Both said that a Restart would be needed but I only Restarted after doing the 2nd one. It had told me to remove any discs and let it Restart.

    My thoughts were that if this all works, I could now just Copy/Paste to the USB Thumbdrive so I won’t even need to use CDs or the Iomega CD player anymore.

    Cool, that Add New Hardware Wizard thing didn’t pop when it Restarted, so it must at least know of those 2 devices that it finds are plugged into the USB ports having drivers installed.

    So, that’s good, I guess.

    The problem is though that after a Restart, as I’m in My Computer with the Iomega CD-RW and the USB Thumbdrive plugged into USB ports, no new devices are shown. So, how do I use them?

    If they’d show in My Computer, I could either Copy data onto that same CD or onto the Thumbdrive or both. I think I’d just use the Thumbdrive since it would be so fast & simple.

    So, how do I use it?

    ****** ADDED WITH AN EDIT ******

    I just went into System Properties on the old Gateway and under Other Devices it looks like it has the Iomega CD-RW and that USB Thumbdrive and they both have big yellow ? on them. They are called CDDVD523216E23-B and TransMemory which I've seen somewhere as I've been messing with the thumbdrive. I clicked on both of their yellow ? and they popped boxes saying Device Status: The driver for this device is not installed (Code28) to reinstall the drivers for this device, click Reinstall Driver.

    So, I guess I should try doing that but I'd like to hear back from you before I do, just in case you've got something I should know. I guess it will probably want me to navigate to the driver or something like that. It had seemed like it knew what to do with both of the driver files earlier when I'd double-clicked on them.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-05-08T04:52:37+00:00

    First of all, what drive on the device is the drive letter E: associated with?

    Why did you do both at the same time (one at a time is best practice, especially on and old outdated OS that is no longer supported (nor able to be updated past were it was when you stopped using it or updating it when updates were still available)).

    At this point try shutting down then unplug the CD drive and the thumb drive then startup the device, then do a restart and give it 10 or fifteen minutes to stabilize, then plugin one of the peripherals (either the CD drive or the thumb drive, your choice) then let me know what happens. What do you then see in My Computer, System properties (Device Manager?) etc..

    Let me know.

    -Richard

    Drive E: is the built-in CD-RW.

    I foolishly tried doing them both when I found that the CD drive was working OK to read the driver files and I didn't want to miss my opportunity. I guess it was dumb. I also screwed up by not having Copied each other them and Pasting them somewhere that I could navigate to later if I needed to install them. 

    Was that silly double clicking thing that I did to them the right way to have installed them or at least, should it have?

    When you say "no longer supported (nor able to be updated ...)", is that why the choice to get the driver from Microsoft Update on the New Hardware Found box just does nothing when I had clicked it last week?

    I'll do your Shut Down, unplug stuff & Start it up, wait 10 minutes and report back with what I see at My Computer > right-click Properties (System properties) > Device Manager tab.

    ****** ADDED WITH EDIT *****

    I just Copied both driver files off of the CD after putting it back in and I Pasted them to the Desktop on the old Win 98 machine so I can get them from there tomorrow if they're needed again.

    ****** ADDED WITH ANOTHER EDIT *****

    I couldn't wait until tomorrow so I Restarted & waited 10 minutes or so. When I plugged in the USB hard drive, at My Computer > right-click Properties (System properties) > Device Manager tab, I see that same yellow ? mark. Should I do what I'd mentioned in my last Reply that I'd seen it offer when I click on the yellow ? mark to {Reinstall Driver]?

    I'll wait for your Reply so this is the last Edit I'll do on this one. I hope it's OK with you that I've done this. Tell me if I shouldn't. :-)

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