transferring large files

I have an old 486 Windows 95 computer with a 3.5 floppy and a cd reader that has a bunch of files on it too large for a 3.5 floppy. I'd like to move the data to a slightly newer Windows 95 box. How can I transfer the files too large for the 3.5 medium? I tried hooking them together with a cable and activating the Windows 95 direct cable network facilities, but they don't seem to talk to eachother.

 

Whenever I've had this problem I've used something like WinZip. Where that's not been possible for some reason, I've even resorted to my now ancient copy of PKZip for DOS, though that shortens filenames to 8.3 format. These utilities will compress large files and span them across as many floppy disks as it takes. An alternative is to use DOS versions of the unix utilities compress and tar. All these utilities may be found on magazine cover CDs and/or, of course, the net .

 

Get hold of a copy of Interlink and you can hook the computers together for file transfers easily. I used it several times long ago and it always worked well. Go here for more details.

 

You could also just take the hard drive out and put in the other computer as a slave. Then copy what files you wanted. Then put the drive back in the computer it came out of. Just remember to to reset the jumper back to master.

 

Moving the hard disk is a good move where it's an option. I have an old 486 in the loft which doesn't have an IDE drive or port . An IDE connector simply wouldn't fit it, but are there any old formats out there where an IDE connector would fit but, at best, not work?

Surferdude's post made me think of something else. I wonder if the reason why direct cable connection (DCC) didn't work for Kneale was because Kneale had the wrong cable. I've never had to use DCC, but it must surely require a "cross-over" cable, not a 1-1 cable as used by, say, a printer.

One other suggestion - can we take it that networking the two computers with UTP Ethernet (using, if necessary, an old network card out of the junkbox for the 486) is not an option? That's always my first choice.

 

Windows DCC absolutely requires a special cable. The terminology varies according to who you talk to.

You must have a null modem cable. Some call it a laplink cable. Some call it a cross-over cable. No matter the term, just get one.

Do not try DCC with a typical printer cable or any parallel or seriel point-to-point wired cables. They just won't work. I was always disappointed that the OS software couldn't do its own "virtual cross-over" by just reconfiguring itself but its not going to happen.

I was also disappointed that MS never made it very clear as to what cable was required. I think they got confused with the multiple terminology and didn't want to clarify it since DCC tended to help users install their system on more than one computer.

Now the old Interlink software is different. It uses simple point-to-point wired cables, either parallel or series - parallel being preferred for reason of speed.

 

Hmmm - how does it do that, Surferdude ? I've spent the square root of bugger all time looking at the parallel port, but serial (RS232) I'm well familiar with. The Rx and Tx lines would have to swap cos you're connecting a DTE to a DTE. It's not a big deal unless you find yourself with exactly one less DTE-DTE (crossover) cable than you need. I would be very interested to know if the Rx and Tx lines (and associated handshaking lines) can be programmatically swapped on a PC. I'm often one short of a load .

Kneale: Parallel is indeed faster, but if you get nowhere using it, both types of serial cable (DTE-DTE and DTE-DCE) should be available at your local electronics store for almost no cost, though you may need to buy a gender changer or two. It'll be horrendously slow though .

 

serial DCC - use 7 wire (6 + ground) crossover cable, it needs all 6 wires, 3 pairs cross; this cable will also work fine for an Interlnk connection. Although you can do Interlnk with only 3 wires (2+ground) if you aren't trying to do the "remote setup the intersvr" thing...

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parallel DCC has three forms : slow, middling, fast. Different cable wiring.

To use middling or fast you must have bidirectional parallel ports (frinst ECP) at both ends.

"Fast" requires very special cable with electronics hidden inside the plugs.

"Middling" is best wiring - and simple - if you are sure you have bidirectional parallel ports at both ends.

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If unsure what kind of parallel ports, the best "sure-fire" solution is "slow ".

"Slow" parallel works fine with all kinds of parallel port, even old-fashioned non-bidirectional LPT (the receive pins are normally associated with "paper out" "printer ready" etc signals)

Using a 33MHz 486 and W95b with "slow" parallel DCC I get ~40kB/s transfer rate for big files. It's much slower when transferring lots of small files.

It's quite "handleable" once you have it set up OK, you can just explore the other machine under network neighbourhood using Windows Explorer, copy and paste etc. A bit like using ethernet only a heck of a lot slower... and DCC clobbers the daylights out of the CPU by comparison with ethernet.

Kneale - if you can't fit the HDD as slave in the other PC, and if ethernet isn't an option, parallel DCC will probably prove your best bet - serial really is very slow (slower than a 56k dialup)

'fraid not on a serial port, line drivers are different hardware-wise to line receivers.

best wishes, HJ