You can use USB-IDE adaptors, for harddisks or you can use CF-Card adaptors for USB as well. Or you can move data using CD/DVD's and finally you can use network connections. 1.44mb floppy disks are kind of pain to use, when moving lots of data. Yes you can use ZIP-100, ZIP-250 and so on. Personally I just use CD's and DVD's.

What exactly are you trying to do?
If you just want to move data, brostenen adivces are very good.

If you want to make a bootable fdd, then usb fdd *should* work, if you have the img file, otherwise it might be hard, depends on the OS.
USB CDROM on the 486 might be a good solution, again, depending on what OS are you trying to install.

RaverX wrote:

USB CDROM on the 486 might be a good solution

USB on the 486 platform, are pretty rare. I believe that only high-end 486 systems have USB. I have seen some IBM machines and stuff like that with USB. Yet clones/non-brand machines that you build yourself, does not have USB port. And to get USB working somewhat decent, you need at least Win95 Version-C. Just use the old reliable IDE CD-Rom drive, and things will work out for you.

USB on the 486 platform, are pretty rare

More like nonexistent. USB was featured on the late Pentium systems.

This should be helpful: Re: Vogons Video Announcement Thread

My first choice is always ethernet. If the system runs DOS then it can run the mTCP FTP server, and the newer system can connect with WinSCP (or whatever). If the system runs Windows then it can use file sharing or HTTP to download stuff. (Create an HTTP server on your LAN by using the utility HFS)

Second choice is parallel laplink cable or serial null modem. The former can use INTERLNK/INTERSVR under DOS or Direct Cable Connect under Windows. The latter can use either of those or a standard terminal program. The data speed is not very high though so this type of connection is not ideal for large files.

Third choice is to directly connect the HDD or a CF card, or use a USB-IDE adaptor. In the case of large files this is also the fastest method. Recently I got an ASMedia-based USB 3.0 PCIe card which has drivers for Windows 2000, and a USB 3.0 IDE adaptor, so I can move multiple GB in under a minute 😀 However, USB-IDE adaptors don't seem to work with very old HDDs (like under 500MB) and sometimes the port doesn't supply enough power to run a 44-pin (laptop) drive.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

USB on the 486 platform, are pretty rare

More like nonexistent. USB was featured on the late Pentium systems.

I might remember wrong though. I just seem to remember a single post or two here on Vogons, with some kind of extremely late era or highend corporate 486 machine. Must have been a Pentium then.

Uhhh... Card readers are cool as well. I have this USB CF-Card reader that I bought around 2001 or something. Perfect for both FAT and Amiga-Fast-Filesystem formatted cards. Mostly I just use it when setting up an Amiga harddrive on a CF-Card, using FS-UAE emulator on Linux. On a 386/486/Pentium-PC, it is just a matter of taking out the CF card, plugging it into the CardReader, and plugging it into the USB port on a Linux/Win10/MacOS machine. The hardest part is to unscrew the case cover. (Using a screwdriver is actually not a big issue at all)

I had an XP system (that I sold) which I used to bridge the gap between new and old systems.

I'm going to build another one out of loose parts to do just that - SATA and IDE, and a multi-card reader on the front.

For now, I bust the systems open and use a 512Mb (so my old computers BIOSes can see it) CF card.

PATA to SATA adapter (and then SATA to USB3?) if you want to move a lot at once. Network if you want to move stuff afterward. I normally push files to my 486 from within Win10, but Windows for Workgroups can't touch any of my Win10 system's drives. Mildly annoying, but whatever. Changing the drive out for CompactFlash is probably better for multiple reasons.

For a complete, stable system fully agree with bakemono - Ethernet+FTP wins hands-down (on DOS at least, if NFS is supported by OS that's so much easier). For quick&dirty stuff while building, CF cards with IDE adapter for the system being worked on and USB on the modern system works best. Oh, and a Gotek for install floppy images.

dionb wrote:

For a complete, stable system fully agree with bakemono - Ethernet+FTP wins hands-down (on DOS at least, if NFS is supported by OS that's so much easier). For quick&dirty stuff while building, CF cards with IDE adapter for the system being worked on and USB on the modern system works best. Oh, and a Gotek for install floppy images.

Ahhh... Gotek. It is a neat and fancy piece of hardware. And I can see the use for it, if you do not have room for over 500 floppy disks. I just like floppy disks more. Sure I would have room for two more systems, yet I am happy with my +600 disks. Most of them are for my Amiga's, and only one box with a little under 100 disks are for Dos.

My C64 on the other hand, is were I have ditched floppy disks. I sold my floppy disks and floppy drive, then got an SD drive. So yeah... I fully see the useability in gotek or other flash memory based disk drive replacements.

why not one of those gotek things.

Warlord wrote:

why not one of those gotek things.

If you as an example, need to move 325 megabyte of data in one go, then it would be a lot of work to split it up into 1.44mb files. Gotek are nice for stuff like cdrom drivers and soundcard drivers. Or using it for images of installation floppy's.

Not that I know what I'm doing (bakemono apparently does), but, what I do is connect a CD-RW and I can load lots of files to it. It is tedious. If my systems were in the same room I would prefer to network them. Pro tip, don't reformat, just write multiple sessions.

If you have PCI and Windows 98 I am itching for USB, but I don't actually have a card like that...I had a VIA that just frankly didn't work. NEC chipsets are said to be good; USB 2 is said to be a CPU hog while connected FWIW.

But hey. For old computers, besides source disks I find it frequently meaningless to need to move more than 1.38MB at a time, or at the very least toss a ZIP or even WinRAR in there and stuff a couple MB onto those disks.

thanks for all this reply... i try to explain better.. if u must move multiple megabyte for sure i switch off the computer, detach the hard drive and connect it to a modern system. But if i only try little software that can store in a single floppy, detach the hard drive and connect every time is really annoyng. For that king of little file i have ask if the floppy drive is the best way. Ethernet and parallel under dos means time and time to learn how to use and really not have this time.

FTP or USB to IDE adapter.

On all my 286/386/486/Socket 7/Slot 1 machines:

For small things, boot disks etc I use USB floppy drive - works like charm.
For bigger things like drive backups I use CF card.
For random stuff I use network (FTP).

CF card is preferred on 286/386 machines.

On later machines I use network most of the time.

I use USB-IDE bridge as well but the one I have doesn't support CHS mode for old HDDs so I can only use it for LBA-compatible drives.

For MFM HDDs I use floppies - these hard drives are usually 10 or 20 MBs so transferring all data out of them is not a problem using 1,44MB floppies.

brostenen wrote:

Warlord wrote:

why not one of those gotek things.

If you as an example, need to move 325 megabyte of data in one go, then it would be a lot of work to split it up into 1.44mb files. Gotek are nice for stuff like cdrom drivers and soundcard drivers. Or using it for images of installation floppy's.

Exactly the latter, particularly because of DOS' bad habit of not letting you make drives other than C active in another computer. I wouldn't use it for 325MB, or even for32MB.

AlessandroB wrote:

thanks for all this reply... i try to explain better.. if u must move multiple megabyte for sure i switch off the computer, detach the hard drive and connect it to a modern system. But if i only try little software that can store in a single floppy, detach the hard drive and connect every time is really annoyng. For that king of little file i have ask if the floppy drive is the best way. Ethernet and parallel under dos means time and time to learn how to use and really not have this time.

I think you're overestimating the learning curve of mtcp + ftp, and didn't understand the IDE-CF adapter option.

This is what I'm referring to:

External slot-plate. Just stick CF in before booting and you're good to go - no screwdrivers or other disassembly required. Need to put files on the CF? Turn PC off, pull it out and hook it up to USB->CF adapter on modern PC. But mtcp FTP is still easier and faster because you don't need to reboot anything.