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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Hi all,
I have an old Compaq Armada 4220T laptop with no USB ports and a dead floppy drive. Floppy drives for these old laptops do occasionally surface but they are not cheap. I'm never likely to need this laptop again, after I salvage the old data files from its hard drive. How can I get the data off it, cheaply? The laptop has a printer port and a serial port and a port marked IOIO. Is it possible that I could connect an external floppy drive to one of those ports - or perhaps find some kind of serial-to-female-USB adapter or parallel-t-female-USB adapter that would work? The laptop has a docking station with a SC-Rom drive but it is read-only drive. It also has a PCMCIA port. I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Did anyone make protable hard-drives prior to USB? If so, which port did you plug them into? I just want to get the data off with as little outlay as possible. Thank for any helpful suggestions. Al |
#2
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
"AL_n" wrote in
: Thank for any helpful suggestions. Al PS, the full list of ports on the Compaq Armada 4220T is as follows: 1 x PCMCIA 1 x keyboard / mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) 1 x docking / port replicator - 176 pin docking 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) 1 x microphone - input - mini-phone mono 3.5 mm 1 x serial - RS-232C - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x display / video - composite video output 1 x audio - line-in - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm and 1 x infrared - IrDA (according to the online handbook, though I've never discovered it!) |
#3
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
On 18 Nov 2014 15:48:41 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:
I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Coming through the PCMCIA with a device to transfer to reach the HD is one way. Say a usb pcmcia card, a controller...all kinds of those sorts of things, maybe a little cheaper than a floppy. Did anyone make protable hard-drives prior to USB? If so, which port did you plug them into? I just want to get the data off with as little outlay as possible. Fast hard and as dirty as possible - (among options) you want to pull the HD, figure out the interface and buy the right adaptor to interface into a desktop PC's PATA/SATA ports. Probably one of the cheaper routes...lots of $10 stuff like that on Ebay (off the Pacific Rim - 20, 30 days to ship). |
#4
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
AL_n wrote:
Hi all, I have an old Compaq Armada 4220T laptop with no USB ports and a dead floppy drive. Floppy drives for these old laptops do occasionally surface but they are not cheap. I'm never likely to need this laptop again, after I salvage the old data files from its hard drive. How can I get the data off it, cheaply? The laptop has a printer port and a serial port and a port marked IOIO. Is it possible that I could connect an external floppy drive to one of those ports - or perhaps find some kind of serial-to-female-USB adapter or parallel-t-female-USB adapter that would work? The laptop has a docking station with a SC-Rom drive but it is read-only drive. It also has a PCMCIA port. I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Did anyone make protable hard-drives prior to USB? If so, which port did you plug them into? I just want to get the data off with as little outlay as possible. Thank for any helpful suggestions. Al "USB portable harddrive cases" You could pick up one of these, or even borrow one. These convert from 44 pin dual row 2mm centers on the laptop side, to 40 pin dual row 0.1" centers on the desktop side. You connect the desktop pin side, to your USB 3.5" enclosure ribbon cable. The hard drive can draw up to 1 amp from the 5V rail in the enclosure, when the 2.5" drive spins up. "Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter Converter" $2.36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119245 "Cables To Go Laptop to IDE Hard Drive Adapter Cable - 2.5" Laptop to 3.5" Desktop" $4.99 http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=016080 The reason I list two of them, is I could order one online for 2.36 plus shipping, or drive to a brick and mortar store like the second entry, and get it today for $5. In terms of "exposures" with such an adapter, the pins on the adapter can be bent, if you're not careful. Some of the older 80 wire IDE cables have reasonably lubricated connectors and won't fight too much. I have some more modern IDE cables with higher insertion force. The adapter doesn't give any protection to the pins. (Some other IDE connector formats have the plastic box around the pins to protect them.) The power connector is the other weak point. The pins in the connector will flop around, so you have to wiggle them a bit to get the power connector in your USB housing, to mesh with the adapter power connector. The adapter power connector only has two pins, because the small laptop drives just use the +5V power source. Whereas, the larger 3.5" drives use both +5V and +12V, and have a couple ground pins as well. That's why the adapter doesn't have all the pins on its power connector. They're not needed. You can probably find a pinout diagram online, to understand why the 44 pin and 40 pin, not all the pins get connected. The extra pins on the 44 pin were intended for power, which is why the power cable goes on the pins on one end of the connector. ******* A cheaper still solution, would depend on materials on hand. I have a collection of RS232 cabling, null modem cables, male to female adapters, 9 to 25 pin adapters, the works. My bag of junk is probably worth a hundred bucks at one time. I used to use that to get myself out of a jam at work, but I've also used it to join balky computers together here at home. For example, I can boot a Linux computer, point the console port output to the serial port, then use Hyperterm on the Windows PC, to talk to the Linux computer. If the Linux computer has a bug and freezes, I can then use the Hyperterm port to test whether the machine is responsive. This is typically used if Xwindows has a focus/selection bug (and the GUI freezes), or dbus dies and the mouse/keyboard on the Linux machine stop working. Frequently, the CPU is still running, and all that is needed is a working software path. So if you had another computer with a serial port, you'd need a "rolled" cable (null modem cable), so the tx and rx get flipped from one end of the cable to the other. As far as I can remember, a regular cable is intended for connection between a DCE and a DTE. To connect two similar devices (two computers over serial port), you need a null modem dongle to swap the wiring. Once that is done, two computers can be connected together, and talk over Hyperterm. But that's the weak part of this plan. You have no way to get software into the computer. No working network connection. The floppy used to be your "port of entry", but it is broken. And I don't even know if Windows 95 has Hyperterm (bundled with my copy of WinXP). Hyperterm has a menu entry to "send a text file", and apparently that uses Kermit protocol. Back in the day, we might have used copies of the actual Kermit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol) Back in the lab at work, I used to do some sort of procedure between a Mac and a PC, which involved something like "type blah ... com1". Some sort of command which streams a file out the PC serial port. And I had some other command on the Mac end, to suck up the data. No Kermit protocol was used. No Zmodem protocol either. No error checking. After the PC command was executed, you followed that by sending some control character. I transferred maybe fifty files that way, at God awful speed. Because the boss didn't care how you got stuff done, just that it got done. So that's an example of just how crude this stuff can get. I expect you could use such a protocol (no Kermit) on your current setup. I just don't remember all the details. I might have been running those two pigs at 4800 or 9600 baud. I'm guessing the PC I was given, didn't have a network card, and that's why I was doing it :-) Good times. ******* It's possible to set up networking over IRDA. I've never used an IRDA port, so don't know the details. There are USB to IRDA dongles to plug into a modern PC, to give you a "receiving end" on the other PC. There may be a red plastic lens or aperture on the Armada. The fun part, is data rate. A proper (good) IRDA runs at 4Mbit/sec. Which is 0.5MB/sec. That would give a painful but useful transfer rate, to get off a few valuable files. The motherboards I have here, came with IRDA headers, but they use the slower rate. I think the best those motherboard ones could manage, is 115Kbit/sec. Which is really not all that much better than a modem. The main advantage, is if the OS happens to have a TCP/IP stack to run over IRDA. (only if you're interested) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_Data_Association Does Win95 have file sharing ? Working on that method, would only be worthwhile if you knew for sure the whole protocol stack was present. Just too many details. ******* They made ZIP drives with parallel connectors on them. My ZIP drive cartridges hold 250MB of data (size varies with vintage), and I think my drive still works. Mine has the USB connector on it, and the previous generation were parallel. There is a picture of one of the older parallel port versions in this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive You would need a well stocked junk bin, to have one of those sitting around. Those drives seemed to be popular with certain segments of the computer user population. Perhaps photographers were using those at one time, doing backups or machine to machine transfers. I think the reason I bought my drive, is we had a drive at work as well (one drive, shared over a whole bunch of computers). ******* So right now, from this distance, the $5 adapter purchased from a local computer store is looking the most practical. if you pay yourself $5 an hour to work on computers, I cannot imagine any of the other methods being done in an hour. You'd need to do at least an hour's worth of online research first. Paul |
#5
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
AL_n wrote:
Hi all, I have an old Compaq Armada 4220T laptop with no USB ports and a dead floppy drive. Floppy drives for these old laptops do occasionally surface but they are not cheap. I'm never likely to need this laptop again, after I salvage the old data files from its hard drive. How can I get the data off it, cheaply? The laptop has a printer port and a serial port and a port marked IOIO. Is it possible that I could connect an external floppy drive to one of those ports - or perhaps find some kind of serial-to-female-USB adapter or parallel-t-female-USB adapter that would work? The laptop has a docking station with a SC-Rom drive but it is read-only drive. It also has a PCMCIA port. I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Did anyone make protable hard-drives prior to USB? If so, which port did you plug them into? I just want to get the data off with as little outlay as possible. Thank for any helpful suggestions. Al If there aren't many files and not too big, just e-mail them as attachments to yourself. Be careful about e-mail providers that block e-mails sent to yourself from yourself (e.g., Gmail) which is an old spammer trick or any server- or client-side rules you defined to test on e-mails you receive that specify you as the sender. Or use online file storage. There a many of such sites but they usually restrict the maximum size of the file. You gave no indication what file sizes are involved. There are online file services which are designed to help transfer files between users, like MediaFire, Megashares, Sendspace, or TransferBigFiles. There are online file services designed for you to store your files online, like Dropbox, SpiderOak, iDrive, Syncplicity, and aDrive. I use aDrive which has a 50GB of storage but a 10G limit on filesize for free accounts. If you have a Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com account, you get 15GB of disk space to store files online (25GB if you're an older Hotmail user that signed in using the webmail UI before the 1-week expiration when Microsoft squashed their users down to 7GB and then tried charging to get back the removed storage quota, then later they upped the 7GB quota to 15GB). With Dropbox or the OneDrive service in Hotmail/Live/Outlook.com, you could install their clients on both your computers. Although they have a max storage quota, and as long as your files are smaller than the max filesize they permit, you could drag a file on your old laptop into its local Dropbox or OneDrive folder which would then transfer that file into the Dropbox or OneDrive folder on your other computer. Of course, this requires transferring the file over the Internet. While you might have 20, 30, 50, or more, Mbps download speed from your ISP, you very likely have asynchronous bandwidth which means your upload speed is far less, like only 3-5 Mbps. So the upload from your laptop will be slow. I believe the clients will indicate which syncrhonization has completed (but that is just from client to server, so you'll have to wait for the upload sync to complete from laptop to Dropbox or OneDrive and then wait for the download sync to complete from Dropbox or OneDrive to your other host running their client). Your own ISP probably provides "personal web page" space (a disk quota on their server) to where you can upload and download files. Just be aware that once off your computer that it is on someone else's computer and you have to trust they don't peek in your files, redistribute them, or get hacked. So for files with sensitive info in them, put them into a passworded .zip file. Or better yet, dump several sensitive files into a TrueCrypt container the size of which is less than the maximum file size for the online file service and use that to transfer files. In either case, be sure to use a strong password. You're using the "cloud" to transfer your files and that isn't that secure. |
#6
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
AL_n wrote:
PS, the full list of ports on the Compaq Armada 4220T is as follows: 1 x PCMCIA 1 x keyboard / mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) 1 x docking / port replicator - 176 pin docking 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) 1 x microphone - input - mini-phone mono 3.5 mm 1 x serial - RS-232C - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x display / video - composite video output 1 x audio - line-in - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm and 1 x infrared - IrDA (according to the online handbook, though I've never discovered it!) And what ports are available on the OTHER computer? There is software that will let you do serial-to-serial port file transfers. See http://www.bing.com/search?q=file%20...0serial%20port. You cannot connect this old laptop to a network? You did not list an Ethernet port. If there is no RJ-45 Ethernet port, doesn't that laptop have a PCMCIA slot? If so, get a PCMCIA Ethernet card (http://www.citylabinfo.com/410-943-t...ernet-card.jpg, example only). Are you posting here using the old laptop? If so, it is already hooked up to a network. If the old laptop can be networked, why not use file sharing over your intranet to transfer files from host to host? If you are connecting only one computer to however you connect to your ISP (dial-up, DSL, cable modem) then you will need to add a router so you can have multiple computers connected to the Internet plus those computers can be networked together on your intranet (LAN side of the router). I take it the old laptop doesn't have an inbuilt CD-R optical drive so you could use sneakernet to transfer files. |
#7
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
On Tue, 18 Nov 2014, Flasherly wrote:
On 18 Nov 2014 15:48:41 GMT, "AL_n" wrote: I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Coming through the PCMCIA with a device to transfer to reach the HD is one way. Say a usb pcmcia card, a controller...all kinds of those sorts of things, maybe a little cheaper than a floppy. YOu can get a PCMCIA to CompactFlash card adapter, and then get a CompactFlash card. Or a PCMCIA to ethernet card, or PCMCIA to modem card. Or a PCMCIA wifi card. The problem is, will they be easy to get at this point, when the PCMCIA bus is long gone from laptops? ONe may have to track them down, and i'm not sure if they'd be cheap or expensive (depending on whether the seller decides nobody wants them, or decides they are now hard to get so the price should go up). I know I have Powerbook 1400 and though I'm not likely to really use it at this point, I have bought PCMCIA cards at garage sales for a dollar each or so. So I have that modem, and I did get that wifi card. I was at one sale that had some ethernet cards, and as I was walking away, the guy rushed after me and gave me a couple of others. I think that was the place that had the PCMCIA to CompactFlash card, with a relatively small COmpactFlash card in it, but it wsa one of those things with built in wifi, which has potential. So long as the hard drive uses the IDE interface (I'm thinking it's likely that old, what with PCMCIA and no ethernet), I'd just get it out of there and connect it to a computer with an IDE interface. Lots of old computers around that do that, cheap if you just need to get the data off the drive. But I've just opened up my main computer and hooked up an IDE drive externally, just connect the IDE connector and a power connector, leaving the drive outside the box for the brief time it takes to copy the drive. Michael |
#8
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
On Tue, 18 Nov 2014 23:46:33 -0500, Michael Black
wrote: -fl Got'cha. Been that long since I ruined my eyes with laptops (my first and last were OH-MY-GOD Toshiba CGA mono, then Satellite/IBM ThinkPads - 386/486 circa, respectively). ...Well, to be honest, I did dabble a bit with a RF-analogue modulator/converter for hooking "luggable," post-FORTRAN lunchboxes to a 5" B&W TeeVee screen. Such nasty, nasty things and so very addictive. So you're saying PCMCIA (Revs I-X) are be showing a bit of ageware. Duly noted. Really. Laptop users should be stood against the Wall of Shame and shot in mass if they first don't do their homework, and well, when planning for these sorts of future contingencies. It should be thought of an extension to the desktop/PC, often necessary for the fieldwork types, and never left afar from a desktop's backup and protective policies. Then, again - it's the Age of Cloud Reasoning, and the distinction might begin to blur with online subscription storage faculties. Not that I'm any better off, being quite bad that way. I tend to be a packrat and store what's turned into extant fuzzballs oozing from the Well-o-Well One Throws One's Money Down. ...Still have my ThinkPad and its PCMCIA 28.8 modem, next to my feet as a matter of fact;- as well as a Toshiba CGA powered by an Intel 8088, that's actually in quite beautiful condition. At one point in time, either would have sufficed for the price of a brand new car at some entry, sub-highperformance factor, rather than the cost of a house and what a present crop of vehicles, daily interspersed into Google's Tech News reviews, fetch from an upwardly zoomzoom-minded crowd. YOu can get a PCMCIA to CompactFlash card adapter, and then get a CompactFlash card. Or a PCMCIA to ethernet card, or PCMCIA to modem card. Or a PCMCIA wifi card. The problem is, will they be easy to get at this point, when the PCMCIA bus is long gone from laptops? ONe may have to track them down, and i'm not sure if they'd be cheap or expensive (depending on whether the seller decides nobody wants them, or decides they are now hard to get so the price should go up). I know I have Powerbook 1400 and though I'm not likely to really use it at this point, I have bought PCMCIA cards at garage sales for a dollar each or so. So I have that modem, and I did get that wifi card. I was at one sale that had some ethernet cards, and as I was walking away, the guy rushed after me and gave me a couple of others. I think that was the place that had the PCMCIA to CompactFlash card, with a relatively small COmpactFlash card in it, but it wsa one of those things with built in wifi, which has potential. So long as the hard drive uses the IDE interface (I'm thinking it's likely that old, what with PCMCIA and no ethernet), I'd just get it out of there and connect it to a computer with an IDE interface. Lots of old computers around that do that, cheap if you just need to get the data off the drive. But I've just opened up my main computer and hooked up an IDE drive externally, just connect the IDE connector and a power connector, leaving the drive outside the box for the brief time it takes to copy the drive. Michael |
#9
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
VanguardLH wrote in :
AL_n wrote: PS, the full list of ports on the Compaq Armada 4220T is as follows: 1 x PCMCIA 1 x keyboard / mouse - generic - 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2 style) 1 x docking / port replicator - 176 pin docking 1 x headphones - output - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm 1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25) 1 x microphone - input - mini-phone mono 3.5 mm 1 x serial - RS-232C - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) 1 x display / video - composite video output 1 x audio - line-in - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm and 1 x infrared - IrDA (according to the online handbook, though I've never discovered it!) And what ports are available on the OTHER computer? There is software that will let you do serial-to-serial port file transfers. See http://www.bing.com/search?q=file%20...0serial%20port. You cannot connect this old laptop to a network? You did not list an Ethernet port. If there is no RJ-45 Ethernet port, doesn't that laptop have a PCMCIA slot? If so, get a PCMCIA Ethernet card (http://www.citylabinfo.com/410-943-t...ia-ethernet-ca rd.jpg, example only). Are you posting here using the old laptop? If so, it is already hooked up to a network. If the old laptop can be networked, why not use file sharing over your intranet to transfer files from host to host? If you are connecting only one computer to however you connect to your ISP (dial-up, DSL, cable modem) then you will need to add a router so you can have multiple computers connected to the Internet plus those computers can be networked together on your intranet (LAN side of the router). I take it the old laptop doesn't have an inbuilt CD-R optical drive so you could use sneakernet to transfer files. Thanks for your helpful suggestions. The old laptop has no internet connectivity at present. Unfortunately my PC doesn;t have a serial socket, so good suggestion about serial-to-serial data transfer is not an option. I guess my best bet may be to get a PCMCIA ethernet port card,per your last suggestion. Many thanks Al |
#10
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Getting data off a pre-USB laptop with a dead floppy drive.
Flasherly wrote in
: On 18 Nov 2014 15:48:41 GMT, "AL_n" wrote: I tried removing the hard drive, hoping it would fit one of my USB portable harddrive cases, but the connector is different. Coming through the PCMCIA with a device to transfer to reach the HD is one way. Say a usb pcmcia card, a controller...all kinds of those sorts of things, maybe a little cheaper than a floppy. Thank you for your suggestions. I did buy a PCMCIA-USB adapter, but I cannot find a driver that will work with Windows 98. I found one that is *supposed* to work with W98, but when I try to install it it says it is expecting a newer version of Windows! I could try installing XP onto the old laptop, but I'm not sure if there are sufficient resources and since it wouldn't be a clean installation, I fear I could risk fouling up the contents of the hard drive entirely, and so never get access to the vital data I need from it. Did anyone make protable hard-drives prior to USB? If so, which port did you plug them into? I just want to get the data off with as little outlay as possible. Fast hard and as dirty as possible - (among options) you want to pull the HD, figure out the interface and buy the right adaptor to interface into a desktop PC's PATA/SATA ports. Probably one of the cheaper routes...lots of $10 stuff like that on Ebay (off the Pacific Rim - 20, 30 days to ship). Thanks - that may be a way to go if all else fails. It's a rather fiddly and hazard-fraught option, so I will probably try the other cheap options first... Many thanks! Al |
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