Are you comfortable changing the hardware in the computer? Because the best solutions are going to be swapping out the CD drive for a working one, and putting in an IDE SD card reader so you can easily move files on and off the computer.

Without changing anything, you are likely limited to moving files via floppy which means you need to buy a USB floppy drive for the newer computer. A USB PCI card is also pretty convenient but there is a chicken/egg problem of getting the NUSB driver stack on to the computer for it to be able to read USB sticks.

Thank you for the reply!

I'm willing to learn to try swapping out the CD drive, but not sure of the right parts to use or how to begin. (I'm an engineer, but not the electrical/computer type). I had tried to see if any computer repair shops near me could help but they all said my desktop was too old for them to support. If you're able to help direct me on the right path it would be appreciated!

Thank you for the floppy disk USB idea!! I will order one of those so I can move files over.

If the computer has a usb connector you could just install a driver called NUSB reboot and use any fat32 format usb stick. It is my preferred way to transfer files between modern and old computers.

There are severa; ways I've used to move data from/to older systems.

If the old system has a network connection and it's OS supports it, you can setup a shared folder a move files to/from it.

I both systems have USB and you can find drivers for the old system to access USB drives.

If both systems have working floppy drives (can be a USB drive on a newer system), that works for small files (make sure old/unused drives have clean heads)

Failing actual floppy drives, a GOTEK floppy drive emulator works well on a floppy drive interface. It can put many floppys on a single USB "stick", and I've found that many modern systems can access the first image on their own without needing a GOTEK installed.

If the old system has DOS (or can boot in DOS mode), you can use my DDLINK software to transfer files over Serial, Parallel or Network connections. (On moern system, you can run DDLINK in DosBox). DDLINK can also "bootstrap" itself to a new system over a serial port. And I do have a tool DBBS (DeBug BootStrap) which can transfer any program over serial by "typing" it into DEBUG.

Btw, another "last ditch" way I sometimes use to transfer files to/from old systems - you can get USB IDE&SATA interfaces... you can take the HD out of the system and "mount" it on a modern system - this often involves overriding protections, so I usually make a root-level folder on it before moving it and copy all files to transfer there.

Thank you all for the responses! I will look into those options & will reach back out with any questions.

Another random question - will a USB CD-ROM drive also work as a plug-in replacement for my existing drive in the tower that no longer spins? Or does it have to be a special kind of drive?

I've got at least 3 different USB<>CD/DVDs ... two of them are special small drives with the USB integrated in to them, and no "standard" IDE or SATA connector ... these would be difficult to move to an "inside" drive...But... if the BIOS&OS support them, and you could figure out a way to mount them, it could be made to work.

The other is a "box" with a standard IDE drive, and a separate USB<>IDE interface board, this would be trival to remove and put in a desktop.

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Have you tried to "figure out" why your existing drive does not spin?

It might be a simple mechanical problem and you might just have to free it up and lubricate it a bit.

Does BIOS/OS recognize the drive correctly? Can you try to boot from it?

With the cover off and media in place, does it attempt to move at all?
Can you "spin" it by hand, is it free to move?

If it's an electrical problem, it might be as simple as replacig some caps. You really need to do some diagnostics to figure out how/why it has failed!