11

I have a Windows 98 Second Edition laptop that is slowly degrading. It has not been used for a few years, and I would like to take a backup of the (2GB) drive before it fails. The CD-ROM drive is read-only, and I don't have a spare floppy. I was using a faulty 128MB USB 1.0 stick to move files until it failed, and have no other compatible USB flash drives.

Is there a way that I could use more modern USB devices with my Windows 98? If so, how does it work? If not, how would I go about making one?

wizzwizz4
  • 18,543
  • 10
  • 78
  • 144
  • If it comes to it, I'll remove the drive and wire it directly to another computer. But I want to open it up only as a last resort. – wizzwizz4 Jul 24 '16 at 15:06
  • 1
    Can you boot from the CD-ROM drive? – Mark Jul 25 '16 at 01:21
  • Yes, I remember seeing Optical Drive in the BIOS boot selection priority menu. – wizzwizz4 Jul 25 '16 at 07:18
  • To make backups of harddrives of old computers, it's usually a lot simpler and faster to take out the harddrive, connect it to a more modern PC (using an adapter if necessary), and then make the backup from the PC. (And yes, this is an "XY-answer", too, because you are asking an "XY" question. Your real question is "I want to do a backup of an old laptop"). – dirkt Jul 25 '16 at 19:01
  • @dirkt I have the hardware necessary to do that, but I would like to try other things before opening the machine, just in case I break something. (Do you think I should make it less XY? I was intending an answer to the actual question, but the background info does highlight an "X".) – wizzwizz4 Jul 25 '16 at 20:11
  • If you are careful, you can't really break something. Most laptops are designed so you can replace the harddisk easily. Just make sure you remember whichs screw goes where when you put it back together. In terms of difficulty, trying to get USB to work for modern devices on an old OS is much harder then either opening it or using a tool like System Rescue CD. – dirkt Jul 26 '16 at 05:34
  • I broke my old laptop doing this, haha. – Jordan M. Baron Aug 02 '16 at 10:20
  • 1
    There are custom drivers for USB flash drives under Windows 98 which work with any flash drive (Google it, i have tested it myself, they work). But given your situation it is hard to get the drivers on that laptop hard drive. Also, a live CD may not work at all sine most laptops of the late 90s came with 64-128 MB of RAM or in that range and it is not enough for a live CD. I would suggest to try upgrading the laptop to Windows 2000 since it supports USB out-of-the-box. – snaks20 Aug 12 '16 at 21:00
  • @snaks20 I don't have Windows 2000, and would rather not change the core software installed on my laptop if possible. – wizzwizz4 Aug 13 '16 at 07:55
  • I'm surprised that it supports one USB stick and not another. You would think they would have written one USB MSC driver that just works with all compliant devices. But, this was the same system that would re-run device detection from the beginning just because you plugged a USB device into a different port, so... :) – hobbs Aug 14 '16 at 05:10
  • 2
    @hobbs You mean Windows doesn't do that anymore? I can plug my devices into any port without installing duplicate drivers?! This... this changes everything! – wizzwizz4 Aug 14 '16 at 08:01

2 Answers2

7

Your best option is probably to skip Windows entirely. A Linux livecd will be able to read your filesystem, and has the drivers to use your USB ports built-in. My personal preference would be for System Rescue CD - it requires a Pentium or newer, but other than that, should support almost any hardware.

Mark
  • 8,556
  • 1
  • 40
  • 63
  • Can it image disks? All my memory sticks are significantly larger than my 2 GB hard disk, so a disk image would be ideal. (It's fine if it can't; but if we're talking about skipping Windows and its file locks...) – wizzwizz4 Jul 25 '16 at 11:37
  • 1
    This is a case of the XY problem. You're answering X, which is useful, but Y is more interesting. – wizzwizz4 Jul 25 '16 at 11:38
  • 2
    System Rescue CD has both dd and ddrescue for generating images which are fully compatible with Linux; I don't know if there's an easy way of reading them on Windows or Mac. – Mark Jul 25 '16 at 18:19
  • I have Debian on another computer. It doesn't matter what format, so long as I have the data. – wizzwizz4 Jul 25 '16 at 20:09
3

Have you considered a self contained Boot program called "Active@"? I use this. It will install as it's own OS on a flashdrive so long as the motherboard can see the USB flashdrive. A cut down version of Windows comes up and you can make images of any internal drives from there. It's a great comfort when things go awry.. You simply rewrite the drive and you're back with everything still intact.

You might need a friend's computer to write the flashdrive for you to begin with.

Edgel3D
  • 131
  • 1
  • Thanks for answering my question, and welcome to the site. This is the Windows equivalent of a "Live USB", and I didn't know those existed. Do you know which processors are supported by this? – wizzwizz4 Aug 13 '16 at 14:51
  • Are you the same user as Edgel3d? I can merge your accounts if so. – wizzwizz4 Aug 13 '16 at 14:54
  • Not sure what you mean Wizz but I have an identical username in the Blender SE. As for processors, I've only used it on various Windows machines, and all without problems. If you search for "Active@" you'll find the company's trade name. That's how I found it. – Edgel3D Aug 14 '16 at 11:24
  • There is a user called "Edgel3d" (lower-case d). The account is not registered and was used only once - to write this answer. Did you write that answer? – wizzwizz4 Aug 14 '16 at 11:43
  • Yes Wizz! That was me. – Edgel3D Aug 15 '16 at 02:55
  • 1
    There are also some other bootable Windows variants. Try a search for "Windows PE" or WinPE – jamesfmackenzie Oct 20 '16 at 19:40
  • 1
    On another note, what IO options do you have on the machine? Do you have Ethernet or even parallel/serial ports? You could push files off the machine via FTP, PARCP, ZMODEM etc – jamesfmackenzie Oct 20 '16 at 19:43