In the What are the pros and cons of using a propietary system as your retro box? topic, I had a couple people ask how to search the HP FTP ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq for old compaq drivers.

Deksor wrote:

How does that FTP server actualy "work" ? I'm quite interested with this one but I can't figure out how did they organize their stuff 🙁

BSA Starfire wrote:

I'd be interested to know that as well as I have never found the proper compaq drivers for my media GX Presario 2232.

This is how I've figured out how to use it.

1. Get your "model" from the compaq database. Google the following:
Name of computer + site:ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq
e.g. "Deskpro EN" site:ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq

2. Look at the results, I knew my PC had a 733mhz Pentium 3, turns out they use this in the model name. I could see P733 in the results.

3. Now you can look for a specific driver. Google the following:
Model of computer + type of driver + site:ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq
e.g. "Deskpro EN" P733 BIOS site:ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq

4. Look at the results, you may have to click through a few links to find the right one. In this case it's the third result. We can also see compaq calls a bios update a RomPaq which helps for future searches.

5. OK so you've clicked the link and the description looks good
- Copy the number code from the filename in the URL, e.g. ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp18001-18 ... p18120.txt[/b] -> sp18120
- Delete the filename from the URL in the browser and press enter, e.g. ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp18001-18500/sp18120.txt -> ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp18001-18500/

6. This will show all the files in the folder. Use your browsers search feature to search for the number code, e.g. sp18120

7. Download the EXE file with the same name, e.g. sp18120.exe

8. Copy that to your computer and you can either run the EXE or use 7zip to extract the driver setup files from it.

In the case of the ROMPaq, that required writing to a floppy disk (which I don't currently have any of), so I had to run the ROMPAQ software in DOSBOX to a virtual floppy, which also failed, though it generated a temp file in the rompaq folder, which I could then copy the files off with WinImage. Then I just booted into DOS on the computer and ran the BIOS files from a folder the C: drive instead.

Hope this helps someone!