what about removing the hard disk, and using a laptop IDE to standard IDE adapter and copying the drive on another computer. They cost less than 5 dollars.

Pull the drive and use a modern computer

Hi. I may have jumped the gun a bit by assuming that an IDE adapter in a modern computer wouldn't work. I got that impression after reading posts like this one:

Testing and imaging old IDE/PATA drives

One person mentioned having problems using these adapters with older drives:

IDE USB bridges/converters usually only work with drives that support LBA . Small capacity CHS drives will not work with such adapters, at least with the adapters I have tried .

By small drives, I mean smaller than 8.4GB . Bigger than that will be LBA . Smaller ones may still support LBA in addition to CHS, but sub 1 GB ones are almost certainly CHS only, AFAIK (I could be wrong on that last point, I have not dealt with NON LBA drives in a very long time) .

The drive in my laptop is only 250MB, so I'm assuming it's one of the pre-LBA ones mentioned by that user. I could be mistaken, as I'm not too familiar with this stuff. I just try to do some research before asking questions, but I might have gotten the wrong impression.

If it was me, I'd go the network route assuming you can get a PCMCIA card with DOS ODI or NDIS drivers. Boot the the machine from a floppy disk and image the hard disk to a network drive. Once you're done backing up the machine, the network card is still handy for getting stuff on and off the machine under windows.

Putting the hard disk in another machine would be easier for a one-off backup though if you don't already have the ability to network vintage things.

Oh, yeah. I can confirm that there are issues with really small drives and those adapters

Modern computer plus ide add in card?

davidrg wrote on 2022-09-21, 02:54:

If it was me, I'd go the network route assuming you can get a PCMCIA card with DOS ODI or NDIS drivers. Boot the the machine from a floppy disk and image the hard disk to a network drive. Once you're done backing up the machine, the network card is still handy for getting stuff on and off the machine under windows.

Putting the hard disk in another machine would be easier for a one-off backup though if you don't already have the ability to network vintage things.

I might just need to wait until one comes up on ebay for a reasonable price. I can't justify doubling the price of the laptop right now.

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-09-21, 03:06:

Oh, yeah. I can confirm that there are issues with really small drives and those adapters

Modern computer plus ide add in card?

Oh, I didn't realize that you could add IDE to a modern computer. I'll have to look into that.

Get one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORiNOCO-GOLD-PC-Card … 1-127632-2357-0

Free shipping to the states, hopefully to Canada also.

Set up a guest network on your router with no password or WEP. Enable file sharing in Win95. Share your C drive. Profit.

However you’d have to copy the drivers over. I suggest you buy a USB floppy drive and some blank disks for this purpose. You will absolutely need them in the future for many other things anyway. Not worthwhile not to have them.

As for drivers, open device manager and write down what your hardware configuration looks like. Then find the drivers on the internet. They’re all out there somewhere.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-09-21, 05:07:

Get one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORiNOCO-GOLD-PC-Card … 1-127632-2357-0

Free shipping to the states, hopefully to Canada also.

Unfortunately, it's $20 to ship here. Not a huge deal, but I'd prefer to wait until a Canadian seller has something similar. I have a few other projects to keep me busy, so I don't mind waiting a little while for something cheaper.

LPT cable. You will find one for free if you ask few older people 😀 You will have to mod it for laplink operation (soldering required)
https://cliffordfeta.tripod.com/parallel_dire … _connection.htm
https://www.cambus.net/file-transfers-via-the … -using-laplink/

PCMCIA to Compact Flash adapter is an option as well.

Keep in mind that anything you buy for this could come in handy for future projects as well, so you don't have to think of it as sinking $ into one cheap laptop. That's how I convince myself to keep buying shit anyway.

I would consider replacing the internal drive with an adapted Industrial Compact Flash or SD card . Such cards can easily be read from and written to using a USB card reader on a modern PC .

What brand and model is the laptop ? Some models may present challenges with the above.

> (Hitachi M120D)

Pentium 120MHz 16MB something. There is one on ebay and judging by the pictures passive matrix screen.

rasz_pl wrote on 2022-09-21, 14:02:

> (Hitachi M120D)

Pentium 120MHz 16MB something. There is one on ebay and judging by the pictures passive matrix screen.

Thanks. I somehow missed that.

Pierre32 wrote on 2022-09-21, 12:30:

PCMCIA to Compact Flash adapter is an option as well.

Keep in mind that anything you buy for this could come in handy for future projects as well, so you don't have to think of it as sinking $ into one cheap laptop. That's how I convince myself to keep buying shit anyway.

I tell myself the same thing! Right now, I just don't see myself using a pcmcia network card in other machines. I'll check for a pcmcia to cf adapter. If I could get one cheaper than the network cards, that would work for me.

rasz_pl wrote on 2022-09-21, 14:02:

> (Hitachi M120D)

Pentium 120MHz 16MB something. There is one on ebay and judging by the pictures passive matrix screen.

I plan on taking some pictures and posting a description of the machine in the future. I couldn't find anything on this laptop on the web when researching it. I only found a couple of short articles announcing the Hitachi M series notebooks. It seemed like Hitachi was looking to get into the North American market, and the M series was their premium line.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-09-21, 17:11:

Pierre32 wrote on 2022-09-21, 12:30:

PCMCIA to Compact Flash adapter is an option as well.

Keep in mind that anything you buy for this could come in handy for future projects as well, so you don't have to think of it as sinking $ into one cheap laptop. That's how I convince myself to keep buying shit anyway.

I tell myself the same thing! Right now, I just don't see myself using a pcmcia network card in other machines. I'll check for a pcmcia to cf adapter. If I could get one cheaper than the network cards, that would work for me.

Make sure your laptop supports Cardbus if getting a Cardbus card. AFAICR, Cardbus slots can be backward compatible with PCMCIA, but PCMCIA slots are not compatible with Cardbus cards .

Personally, I would avoid going with a WIFI network card of that vintage, unless you fancy the challenge.

Also, if you don't mind sharing that info, where in Canada are you ? I'm in the greater Montreal area and might be able send you (for free) a spare PCMCIA to CF adapter (if I can find it) and shipping is low enough.

Also, if you don't mind sharing that info, where in Canada are you ? I'm in the greater Montreal area and might be able send you (for free) a spare PCMCIA to CF adapter (if I can find it) and shipping is low enough.

Thanks for the offer. I'm in Alberta. I wouldn't expect to be given anything for free.

just some thoughts... backing up a drive is a whole different thing than just copying files off it. first one can be complex, the second is fairly easy.
I suggest your original option 2 as you said and image the drive using an adapter to an other older computers HD.
That way you could re-image it on a replacement HD. For copying just some files all the other suggestions are good ones.