Using cd's on my "newer" retro pc's but on the older one's without cd-rom I hook up the hdd to a USB--> IDE adapter and transfer files.

On my even older pc's like my Dell System 310 which has a beefy full height ESDI hdd I have no real plan to easy transfer files to it 😁

I want sometime to try a well known amiga solution: an ide->pcmcia adapter as a slave device... the main idea would be to take it to the new-pc, use a media reader to fill it up and put it back in... power on the old pc and have the files available at the 2nd HDD...

keropi wrote:

I want sometime to try a well known amiga solution: an ide->pcmcia adapter as a slave device... the main idea would be to take it to the new-pc, use a media reader to fill it up and put it back in... power on the old pc and have the files available at the 2nd HDD...

Sounds like a plan, but I use SCSI on most of my retro PC's since it's less trouble free and faster than IDE but our old Acard adapters would would work with your idea 😀

Amigaz wrote:

Sounds like a plan, but I use SCSI on most of my retro PC's since it's less trouble free and faster than IDE but our old Acard adapters would would work with your idea 😀

Errr..forgive me for intruding but uh... does "it's less trouble free", mean that it's more troublesome? Or is it it because it's more troublesome, that you use SCSI? You mean that IDE is more trouble free and SCSI is free of less trouble? Please free me from these troubles!!!! 😀

Network cards 😉
It may take some time to set them up, but once you have them running, you don't want to go back.

Malik wrote:

Amigaz wrote:

Sounds like a plan, but I use SCSI on most of my retro PC's since it's less trouble free and faster than IDE but our old Acard adapters would would work with your idea 😀

Errr..forgive me for intruding but uh... does "it's less trouble free", mean that it's more troublesome? Or is it it because it's more troublesome, that you use SCSI? You mean that IDE is more trouble free and SCSI is free of less trouble? Please free me from these troubles!!!! 😀

It's more solid...less pain in the ass with hd size limitations and SCSI cd-rom drives have way better quality qualoty than the early ATAPI cd-rom drives
Just saying one word.....PLEXTOR! 😎

5u3 wrote:

Network cards 😉
It may take some time to set them up, but once you have them running, you don't want to go back.

In pure DOS?

For IDE you can get cheap USB adapters that don't even make you enclose the hard disk anymore, just hook it up and you are ready to go.

For SCSI there are more expensive USB adapters and you might need a pin adapter. I have the U2SCX adapter and it works correctly for accessing SCSI hdd and CD-Rom drives.

I started out as an SCSI fan boy but the noise and the expensiveness of SCSI drives made me go IDE.

Network cards may actually be the best way if you can set it up. In pure DOS you can always install WfW 3.x without losing data...

ide-usb adapters? please elaborate 😀
A network card crossed my mind but immediately rejected the idea , because my PS1/pro only has 3 ISA slots, 1 goes to VGA and 2 for sound 🙁

I also use network. After setting up the system I only transfer network drivers on floppy and then access the share on my main PC. I planned to use ZIP/Jaz drives, but they are to fragile.

keropi wrote:

ide-usb adapters? please elaborate 😀
A network card crossed my mind but immediately rejected the idea , because my PS1/pro only has 3 ISA slots, 1 goes to VGA and 2 for sound 🙁

IDE-USB adapter = Hard Disk +IDE Cable/direct connector on the adapter--->IDE-USB Adapter----->+USB cable----->USB port = Dead End (in your case, unless your "advanced" PS/1 pro has a USB adapter.) 😉

I guess, in your case, one way to transfer files without opening your system is to use a direct serial cable, but this will require a serial connection transfer protocol software, on both ends, if using dos.

I still believe the best way is to use a network card as many have mentioned above.

Maybe you just have to sacrifice a soundcard. If can't, supposing your cpu case can handle it, try an ISA-riser card to add the ISA network card and your sound cards together.

And also, you can try out with a parallel-port cd drive. Can be expensive and I'm not sure if it will read a CD-R.

And finally, if you can part with that system, get another motherboard! 😉

part with my 1st own pc? NEVER! :p

Amigaz wrote:

5u3 wrote:

Network cards 😉
It may take some time to set them up, but once you have them running, you don't want to go back.

In pure DOS?

Yes. There are clients for SMB, FTP, SSH, HTTP, ... for DOS. It helps to have a network card with good DOS support though (and the drivers eat up a LOT of base memory).

Alternatively I'd try an IDE/CF adapter.

Using CompactFlash cards as hard-drives has been my preferred method of doing things for the past few years, first using just IDE-to-CF adapters (for the 386 and 486 systems), and lately with SCSI-to-PCMCIA-to-CF interfaces as well (for the 8086 and 286 systems).

In all but the 386, the CF cards are externally available, so it's just a matter of popping out and moving the cards over to the main, internet-connected system, for file transfers, backups, etc.

Back in the day, my prefered choice was using the old Norton Commander, and it's null modem/parallel link features. As a PC tech, I used that method exclusively for eons when copying files to customer's PCs 😀

Mind you, serial communications were/are miserably slow, but it was quite zippy using a parallel com. cable.

P.S. Total Commander (a.k.a. Windows Commander) also has a feature for parallel communications with it's "LPTDOS" utility. You can run TC on any modern PC, and the client LPTDOS utility on the DOS-based PC and transfer files that way as well.

I use the same method I used back then. A program called FastLynx with a parallel cable connection. They have a Windows version now. I don't even know if the DOS version (last one was 2.01) is still available.

http://sewelldirect.com/fastLynx3.aspx

Back in the day, my prefered choice was using the old Norton Commander, and it's null modem/parallel link features. As a PC tech, I used that method exclusively for eons when copying files to customer's PCs

I was about to post this as well, since I remembered this later in the day 😀

My ide-USB adapter idea was of course at least making you open your old PC and hook up the IDE hdd the old fashioned way.

New IDE-USB adapters don't like old HDDs and old 386s don't like new HDDs...

GL1zdA wrote:

I planned to use ZIP/Jaz drives, but they are to fragile.

My zip drive and disk have had some fun times, but never stopped working. Going on 11 years old. As long as your drive dosen't have the "click of death", I would think this solution as ideal next to networking. Make me wonder what you plan/are doing to yours 😀