All further mentioned "easy" solutions require a lot of knowledge, starting with the acronyms. I am sorry if I wasted your time but I am not going to to learn all that to move a few files to a retro system, when I can simply take the drive out of the bay and write to it directly.

To me this thread has been very helpful in realizing that it isn't working the same easy way any longer as it did some 20 years ago. I have explored the net transfer option: given my network knowledge, it isn't worth the needed efford or the increased risk.

Many thanks to all who contributed!

ux-3 wrote on 2024-06-18, 06:35:

All further mentioned "easy" solutions require a lot of knowledge, starting with the acronyms. I am sorry if I wasted your time but I am not going to to learn all that to move a few files to a retro system, when I can simply take the drive out of the bay and write to it directly.

Depending on your use case, you may find a front mounting CF to IDE adapter helpful. I got this one from StarTech a while back, and it made file transfers between my Socket 7 system and my modern PC a breeze. You can mount the adapter right next to the floppy drive (if the case has two 3.5" bays) and then pop CF cards in and out as needed (while the system is turned off). For your modern PC, just get a USB 3.0 CF card reader and you're all set.

That said, I don't know how the latest Windows versions handle FAT16. I use Linux on my modern PC, and it works fine there.

The problem with network shares is that it becomes a forever moving goalpost. You used to have SMB1, then you needed to go and enable it, now you need group policy, in windows 12 you might need to install it from external sources, in windows 13 it might just be blocked by the AV. Not to mention the occasional update that loves to override your settings and suddenly nothing works.

I've opted for something that won't change as it's already deprecated: FTP. Yes it's not an always available network drive , but for some it might be the right amount of functionality vs effort required. Being able to start the server on demand also minimizes potential security risks.

Another vote for FTP here. Much less hassle than SMB between old and new systems, better support by exotic stuff and if you're worried about security, just put a deny in internet firewall for inbound and outbound traffic on port 21.

One suggestion though: run the server on the old boxes and the client on the new one. That way you can use the same modern, fully featured client (eg FileZilla) in a modern gui in all cases instead of different limited ones (kudos to mTCP but its client is well... primitive) on the older machines. And server config is dead easy.

I use a good old ZIP (250) drive for file transfer to my 11 PC’s that don’t have USB or a CF card.
Not the fastest method but I don’t care and I like the ZIP drive being used instead of collecting dust 😉.

I had the same issue and went with an FTP running on a virtual machine. Works perfectly fine in both ways, even though I mostly use it for getting drivers and software onto my retro machines.