Compaq Contura 420CX original hard disk backup \ VOGONS

Compaq Contura 420CX original hard disk backup

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by Strahssis

Posted on 2022-05-15, 18:00

Strahssis Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 197
Joined: 2018-10-11, 11:19
Location: The Netherlands

Hi everyone,

I just made a backup of the original hard disk of a Compaq Contura 420CX with all the original drivers and software from Compaq. All personal, sensitive data has been removed, but please be respectful if you find anything I might have missed. Other than that the image is completely authentic from 2003, when the laptop was last used. I wanted to put it here on Vogons just in case anyone is looking for the original files or is just curious. Have fun! https://archive.org/details/compaq-contura-420-cx-backup

All the best,

Miko, Strahssis

Mimi: AMD K6-2/266, S3 Trio64, Diamond Monster 3D II, Sound Blaster CT2800, 32MB RAM
Satellite 220CS: Pentium 133, SVGA DSTN, Sound Blaster Pro, 64MB RAM
Contura 420CX: 486DX4 75, VGA TFT, Roland Serial MIDI, 16MB RAM

Reply 1 of 4, by Joakim

Posted on 2022-05-15, 19:20

Joakim Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1107
Joined: 2021-03-31, 12:47
Location: Sweden

That's nice of you.

Is it a good retro gaming laptop? Good screen? Any sound card?

Reply 2 of 4, by Strahssis

Posted on 2022-05-16, 21:05

Strahssis Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 197
Joined: 2018-10-11, 11:19
Location: The Netherlands

Joakim wrote on 2022-05-15, 19:20:

Is it a good retro gaming laptop? Good screen? Any sound card?

It has a 10.4 inch 640x480 active matrix screen, so basically de creme de la creme for retro gaming. Sadly it doesn't have a sound card, so I use an external MIDI device or a Covox Speech Thing clone to get sound out of it. It is very picky with CF-cards, so I'd recommend anyone buying or having this laptop to use an SD-card or just the original hard drive. The build quality and serviceability is also excellent, and it doesn't have barrel battery of doom. It comes with a 486DX4-75 with 8MB of RAM, which I upgraded to 16MB. All around I really like this laptop. 😀

Reply 3 of 4, by Joakim

Posted on 2022-05-17, 04:54

Joakim Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1107
Joined: 2021-03-31, 12:47
Location: Sweden

Sounds almost perfect. Maybe it can utilize of of those PCMCIA sound cards.

Reply 4 of 4, by Strahssis

Posted on 2022-05-17, 12:20

Strahssis Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 197
Joined: 2018-10-11, 11:19
Location: The Netherlands

It could, but sadly I don't have one of those and the 9x-compatible ones are pretty rare. The PCMCIA sound cards you usually see for sale are for Windows 2000 or XP and up. I bet a sound card like that would make it the perfect portable retro gaming device.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Software

Main menu

Common searches