Recovering data from old harddrive?

[I, Brian]

I've got an old 486 here with a small half-gig harddrive with some files on it I'd like to receover. There's no CD drive and the files are all too big for floppies.

I figure there must be a way to either network my existing PC to it and draw the data off that way, or else remove the harddrive completely and attach it directly to a new one somehow.

Not sure what is required to do this myself - any suggestions?

[Chris_D]

Hi Brian,

Does the 486 have an ethernet port? - if so, you could try an ethernet connection and directly to another machine/ network.

If it has a USB port, you could try a USB 'memory stick' drive and download the data to the USB drive

If it has neither - you could buy an ethernet or USB port card for very little and copy the data off it.

Alternatively, you could remove the HDD from the machine, put the HDD inside an external USB drive case, and connect it by USB to another machine & suck the data off the HDD that way.

Good luck!

[fathom]

I've got an old 486 here with a small half-gig harddrive with some files on it I'd like to receover. There's no CD drive and the files are all too big for floppies.

I figure there must be a way to either network my existing PC to it and draw the data off that way, or else remove the harddrive completely and attach it directly to a new one somehow.

Not sure what is required to do this myself - any suggestions?

Why not just remove the drive, set it to slave, add it to your current system on the secondary IDE, copy files, and then remove.

If the drive has the OS on it - it is set to 'master' via a jumper normally labeled MA so change to SL.

This also assume the you don't have a device already set as slave on the secondary IDE - so if need be remove that just to copy the files.

[I, Brian]

Thanks for the replies, folks - I've finally "disassembled" my old 486 and removed the harddrive - think I'll go with an external USB dive case and see how that works.

I've just bought a new PC with two substantial harddrives already present, so I'd rather not risk setting up third in the machine as I don't have a clear idea of what I would be doing. And as it's a new manchine, kid gloves...

Help was much appreciated, though. :)