AboutKevin Expertise I`m familiar with Windows 95/98/XP problems and will try my best to assist you. Feel free to ask any software or hardware related questions.
Experience I started using computers over 10 years ago and have grown to both love and hate it to say the least. I have studied computer programming and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science.
Education/Credentials Bachelors in computer information science
Question QUESTION: How can I get files off a Windows 95 laptop ? It has an external 3.5 floppy which I tried, but my computer with Windows XP won't read them; I get the "would you like to format this disk" message. I also tried to load an older version of Nero and burn a disk; however, it will only recognize images...all of my files are Word files. The laptop is a Texas Instruments Extensa 390. It has the CD-ROM drive, the external 3.5 floppy, ports for printers, and one USB port. Thank you in advance for your help.
Karen
ANSWER: Hi Karen, is that a CDRW or CDR drive then? You mentioned using Nero to burn the disc, so I assume it's one or the other that you have now. If so, how about if you compress them into a zip file first and then burn it? Will Windows XP see the zip file and extract the contents?
Install it on the laptop and run it. Select all your files you want to backup and add it to 7-zip to compress them all into one single file where it will store them.
Does this laptop have internet? If so, see if you can transfer it over that way instead via your home network (assuming the laptop has high speed internet and not just dialup modem).
There are a handful of other methods that can be used. If the above doesn't work or apply to you, we can go over some others to see if they are feasible.
QUESTION: The Nero only reads images...it was not made for this laptop; it was just something I tried that obviously didn't work. I removed it and now the CD-ROM drive is giving me "D:is not accessible. The device is not ready" window. I have no way to transfer the 7-zip to the laptop. It doesn't have Internet.
ANSWER: Does the Windows 95 laptop have a network connection port or only a telephone modem port? If you do, you can get a crossover cable and connect it to your Windows XP computer. You will need to configure the IP address for both computers so they can share files between each other. Let me know if this is an option for you.
Otherwise, if there is no network connection port, you might want to try looking into using a serial cable to do the data transfer. Speeds are not as fast, but will do what you need. A sample of what it looks like is the following:
QUESTION: It only has a telephone modem port. Will the crossover cable still work with it? If so, how do I configure the IP address?
Secondly, if the serial cable route is the way to go, do I just hook them up, and it automatically starts transferring, or are there other steps I must take?
Answer No, they are not the same.
For the serial or parallel cable method, I recommend reading the below:
It will explain in detail what you need to do. Most likely you won't need to touch any settings in Windows XP as they are included services already. So just follow the steps and do this on the Windows 95 laptop. That should get you started. Make sure you double check with whoever you are buying it from that you want to use this to transfer files from one computer to another. Note: Keep in mind that direct cable connection using serial/parallel will be very slow. So depending on how many files you have and how big they are, it may take a very long time to migrate all the data over.
