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
    2019-05-01T22:07:08+00:00

    Cool. Thanks and thanks for laying it in a list like that to keep things straight in my head.

    I had a weird idea that I thought I should toss in: 

    Couldn't I connect my Nokia Lumia 950 phone to that pc with the USB cable to give it internet access to go get that driver that the PC New Hardware Found thing wants from somewhere like the Microsoft Windows Update site or to just copy the data onto its empty onboard SD card? Would the computer need a driver to do that?

    If I could do either thing, I'd need your help. On the internet idea, I'd need to know what steps that I'd need to take to navigate on that site to drivers and to know which driver to get. Then I think that New Hardware Found thing could download it and install it automatically with one click?

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-01T20:46:27+00:00

    Thanks. When you say: “download Windows 98 SE install media, burn it & then see if you can browse it to install that driver:”, I wouldn't know what to look for and where to look. If you could tell me, I'd be glad to do it. Thanks for a link where I could get it from.

    Then, when you said ”I am going to setup a network with Windows 10 and Windows 98 to see if that would be a better option going forward.”, does that mean that maybe I could just wait for that instead? I'm really not sure why you said this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-05-01T17:22:46+00:00

    You would have to download Windows 98 SE install media, burn it then see if you can browse it to install that driver:

    https://winworldpc.com/download/c3b4c382-3210-e...

    I am going to setup a network with Windows 10 and Windows 98 to see if that would be a better option going forward.

    Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

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