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May
15
2009
Hi. I have an old computer running windows 95 and I need to get information out of it. The file is 11.5meg and it will not go to a floppy 3.5. It only has a serial port so I cannot plug an external zip drive into it as they are for USB ports. I have looked in stores such as Best Buy to see if there is an adapter to go from a USB cable to a serial port but they say none are made. I need to transfer it to Windows Vista and I only need to be able to read it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Larry
Answer #2
The easiest way to get your files from the old computer to the new one, may be to use a file splitter program. It will divide your files into smaller parts which will fit on to your floppies. You will then feed the floppies into the new computer and the program will rejoin the parts to create the complete original file.
Go to Download.cnet.com, and search for file splitters. There are a bunch of them, but I personally like "Split40", which is a small program, does not have to be installed, and is FREE.
One small drawback may be that it cannot write the file parts directly to your floppies. You must write the parts to a folder/directory on your old computer, and then copy each part to a floppy. That may be an advantage, however, because then you can use just one floppy to move one part at a time between the two machines.
If your new computer does not have a floppy drive, eBay has some cheap USB floppy drives. I was kind of wary, but the one I got has been great.
If you download the Split40 program, be sure to read the Readme file. There is also one in German if you feel adventurous.
Answer #3
Those cables are made, they may not have them at BB. Google serial to usb cable and you will find many hits, for both db 9 and db 25. You could also remove the hard drive from the old computer and put it in an external enclosure and access the files from there. BB does have the external hard drive enclosures.
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Answer #1
I see two options – you can get a parallel-port Zip drive (I can’t believe a machine of that age has serial but no parallel ports) – that uses the same socket as the printer cable. You might need to get that drive off ebay or similar as I don’t think Iomega make them any more.
The second, possibly cheaper and probably more practical solution is to get an IDE to USB adaptor, and temporarily plug the hard disc into your Vista machine using that adaptor. I have a device similar to this one – http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35057 – one of the most useful little gadgets I’ve picked up in a long while.