Changing windows 98 files to XP?

hotrod_3

A mate of mine, is looking to buy a new computer, the old one has seen better days! But all the files are on W/98 format. He doesn't have a cd writer. Only a floppy.(oh dear) When he gets the new computer, is there any way of coupling the computers up, transfering all the word/excell docuements, so they would read on XP format

Browntoa

the documents would not need anything changing as the operating system does not matter, if they both had Lan cards then you could share the data but I suspect Floppy drives is the only way, or Yahoo has a thing called "briefcase" where you can upload stuff
from the old PC to that and then download from the new one ??

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/

Rex_Mundi

If both computers have a network card in. All you will need is a crossover Cat5 cable. You could set up a small network to transfer any data between the computers. This will cost you way under a tenner.

The files you mentioned are not anything to do with the operating system. They are MS office files, they will open on any other computer with MS office.

hotrod_3

Browntoa wrote:

the documents would not need anything changing as the operating system does not matter, if they both had Lan cards then you could share the data but I suspect Floppy drives is the only way, or Yahoo has a thing called "briefcase" where you can upload stuff
from the old PC to that and then download from the new one ??

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/

The main reason hes changing at the moment is that the spec of his computer is not hi enought to move from dial up to broadband. So the up loading would be a bit of a problem. But thanks anyway

DVB_3

You could get a USB key.

JayCeeEll

If your friend is likely to scrap or gave away his old computer then he might consider just taking the old hard disk out and putting it into his new machine.

In this type of case I would buy a new cheap hard disk to put in the PC to be sold (£40) and stick the old hard disk in my new machine as the primary or secondary depending on how many programs I had installed.

I am always very wary about selling/giving away PC's with hard disks that contain private information (credit card numbers/site passwords etc).
People can recover reformatted disks VERY easily.

It does mean changing a jumper on the disk but this is easy to do as the instructions are on the cover

hotrod_3

JayCeeEll wrote:

If your friend is likely to scrap or gave away his old computer then he might consider just taking the old hard disk out and putting it into his new machine.

In this type of case I would buy a new cheap hard disk to put in the PC to be sold (£40) and stick the old hard disk in my new machine as the primary or secondary depending on how many programs I had installed.

I am always very wary about selling/giving away PC's with hard disks that contain private information (credit card numbers/site passwords etc).
People can recover reformatted disks VERY easily.

It does mean changing a jumper on the disk but this is easy to do as the instructions are on the cover

Interesting. I thought when you formatted a hard drive, it wiped it completely clean?

JayCeeEll

I recently had a hard disk from a machine my sister had, the IDE channel on the mother board had corrupted the disk.

When I used recovery software I could not only get all her FAT files from Windows ME back but also SOME of the NFTS files from the previous installation of Windows 2000.

andyrew_2

I always remove hard disks from old machines. If someone knows what they are doing it is very easy to recover files after they have been "erased".

If its a friend and then you won't even go there!

I've got 3 PC's around the house all linked to the internet all recovered from friends and family and my old PC for kids and my wife to use.

hotrod_3

DVB wrote:

You could get a USB key.

Could you elaborate on that a little please

DVB_3

USB key (otherwise known as USB Flash Disk) is a type of flash storage of a variable capacity, which connects directly to a USB port and appears as a removable drive to the host pc. Think of it as a floppy, but with much higher capacity and speed.

It would be difficult to recommend anything in particular, as there are so many makes and models on the market, so take a look for your self here (you need the last section on this page, it's called USB Flash Disks). These devices are normally differ by the warranty on flash memory itself, storage capacity and access speed. Some have extra features (like biometric sensors), but I doubt you'd need anything remotely like that to transfer some files.