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

Anonymous

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. :-)

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Anonymous

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

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Anonymous

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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82 additional answers

Anonymous

2019-05-08T05:28:11+00:00

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 up thing tomorrow and report back.

****** 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.

Yes, that's correct.

So, you can read (and copy/paste etc.) from the CD drive but are unable to write/burn to disc with it, is this correct? What burning to disc software are you using on the Win 98 device. (Is that what you're missing here/in the equation)?
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Anonymous

2019-05-08T07:53:35+00:00

****** 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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First off all, which CD drive were you able to use to access (use) the drivers from to install them onto the WIN 98 PC, the Drive E: that is the built-in CD-RW or the USB connected external Iomega?

Answer this first then we'll go from there.
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Anonymous

2019-05-08T17:21:17+00:00

I was able to use the Drive E: (the built-in CD-RW). It can be read from & maybe all along has been able to be read from.

Since I was able to put copies of the driver files for the USB Thumbdrive and the external USB CD-RW drive on the Desktop, how about we just make the Thumbdrive work? Couldn't we just do that in Device Manager by having it navigate to the driver and installing it?

I'd SO much prefer using a Thumbdrive than discs and that dumb Roxio EasyCD Creator 5 Platinum software. I think that stuff has made 3 of my 5 blank CDs unusable since they can't now be reformatted on my Windows 10 machine. The Roxio has a feature in MAKE A DATA CD called FORMAT A directCD DISC SO YOU CAN DRAG FILE TO A CD USING WINDOWS EXPLORER.

that doesn't seem to work for me and then I can't even reformat it in my new Windows 10 Dell since it pops this after I hear it trying:
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