Files on a Win 95

DogsOfWar · Post by **DogsOfWar** » 2007-09-19 10:47am

I've got an ancient windows 95 beige box in my room, my family's first computer. There's some files on it that I'd like to take off, so I went out and bought a null modem cable and tried to use XP's file and settings transfer wizard to connect it to another computer. Turns out, even though the program says you can connect to a win 95 machine, you can only do that if it's running the last version of 95 since it requires internet explorer 4. The pc I'm working with runs the first version of 95. Bloody MS. Anyway, does anyone know of a program which will let me connect my win 95 v1 computer to an xp box with a null modem cable?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-09-19 10:53am

Something like Hyperterminal is probably going to be your best bet - pretty sure it provides for file transfer.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-09-19 11:17am

Better bet is just yank the drive out and stick it in your computer temporarily. Be faster too. Anytime you need a large number of files off a machine, sticking the drive into the machine you want the files on is usually going to be the fastest way.

DogsOfWar · Post by **DogsOfWar** » 2007-09-19 02:48pm

Beowulf wrote:Better bet is just yank the drive out and stick it in your computer temporarily.

I considered that, I just left it as a last resort because I'd have to do it at work and it would be somewhat of a pain (my home computer uses SATA cables and I don't have a spare ATA kicking around). I'll try out hyperterminal, and if it doesn't work I'll bite the bullet and remove the drive.

Actually, now that I think about it I might be able to borrow an ATA cable from work...

Laird · Post by **Laird** » 2007-09-19 08:33pm

Any chance of sticking a NIC in there and doing a network transfer?

DogsOfWar · Post by **DogsOfWar** » 2007-09-19 11:57pm

I don't know, I could get a card from work but I'd have to find win 95 drivers for it...

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2007-09-20 03:45am

DogsOfWar wrote:
Beowulf wrote:Better bet is just yank the drive out and stick it in your computer temporarily.
I considered that, I just left it as a last resort because I'd have to do it at work and it would be somewhat of a pain (my home computer uses SATA cables and I don't have a spare ATA kicking around). I'll try out hyperterminal, and if it doesn't work I'll bite the bullet and remove the drive.

Actually, now that I think about it I might be able to borrow an ATA cable from work...

ATA cables are 3-5$ if you don't fall for idiotic branding. It's really the simplest solution, followed by a network transfer.

If you want to stick to the null modem cable you should be able to create a (painfully slow) network connection with it. IIRC you use the same interface as for setting up a dial-up connection. One should be set to host and the other to client (I don't think this matters beyond the first connection). After that, just set up sharing on the Win95 machine (no idea any more how to exactly do that) and yank those files off of there. Note that I might have mangled a point or two in this explanation - I haven't touched direct parallel/serial networks since the Win98 days ie the turn of the millennium.