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

2019-05-02T04:15:39+00:00

No sweat Jeff, glad to try and help,

In brief:

By all means, wait to mark until you/we get there.

You're notified of your marking as answer to let you know that it has been done in case it was marked in error (this does happen more than you'd expect). In such a case you (and only you (or a moderator)) can then in-turn unmark as the answer to your query.

Glad to hear that the Dell (MS approved refurbished) is still kicking a**, so to speak.

Their best worth (these days) is in the recycling of their individual components (there's a wee-bit o Gold hidden within them parts that can be extracted to add to the pot o)<:>)

Yea, best practice is to remove the drives first (bouncing the device off the pavement first doesn't always work, ha). Another reason to by a multi-hookup-compatible external drive enclosure. A drive can then be removed, wiped, and then repurposed or disposed of separately (and safely).

Anyway, good luck Jeff and let us know how it goes, either way.

-Richard
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Anonymous

2019-05-02T04:08:20+00:00

OK, I've got the old Gateway set up next to my current DELL Windows 10 PC. What's next? Do I connect it to the router or could I just connect them to each other with a USB cable? Remember, this is just a temp deal to access data that I want that's on that old machine.
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Anonymous

2019-05-02T03:09:48+00:00

Thanks for your good attitude Richard and thanks for the help so far Andre. I hope it's OK that I haven't been marking any of the Replies YES or rating them 1-5. Should I? Does it help you in any way? If it will, I'll do it. Otherwise, it's easier to skip, especially since if I mark one YES and 5, it sets it as THE ANSWER and that makes the site's algorithm send me an email that ONE OF THE QUESTIONS YOU ARE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN ANSWERED.

Well DUH. I'm the guy that marked it as Answered. Can't they program it to notice that and not bother me with an email?

Anyhow, due to Richard's slapping me upside the head a little to bring me to my senses, I've now decided to just bring that thing in here next to everything else so I can work on both PCs from one place and wire them together with a short cable.

So, I'll get that all done soon. I just unplugged everything on it but I still need to make room for it here in "the office" (the bonus room of my house) and then set it all up in here.

Richard, I love this DELL Inspirion that took over for my ACER All-in-One which still sits here next to it. I still use that ACER every now & then if I need 2 things going at once. I should probably wipe it clean and get rid of it too, along with my old Windows XP Motion LE-1600 Red Tablet and the old Gateway that this thread has been about.

I doubt that they're worth anything as far as selling them except for maybe the Windows 10 ACER All-in-One desktop PC, right? I'd think the best deal would be to take them to one of those ELECTRONICS RECYCLING DAYS that I see that are held around here by who knows who for some unknown reason.

I'd just want to make sure I did a WIPE so that all of my personal info is off of it, even stuff that had been Deleted. I don't need my bank account hacked into by some Chinese hack that buys my old stuff.
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