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General discussion

Consolidating computers

Apr 4, 2005 12:01PM PDT

I'm trying to decide how to consolidate four Win95 computers. They each have 30 or 40 gigabyte harddrives, and each, of course, has its own OS.
I bought a 200Gb ATA Maxtor internal just because it was on sale for $70 and have not installed it anywhere.
I need to analyze the information on all of the Win95 computers. It would be great if I could work with it all on my WinXP computer. I also have a Win98 computer or I could keep one of the Win95's.
So, how best can I get all files except OS stuff off the Win95ers and onto one machine?
I can get carriers to make swapping harddrives around easier. Or I could get a USB harddrive enclosure for about $20. Or I could install the 200Gb harddrive and each Win95 drive to the XP computer. Also, the motherboard in the XP computer is RAID ready.

Any suggestions?

Discussion is locked

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Most ways you mentioned are viable
Apr 5, 2005 11:27AM PDT

but I am wondering how many of your PCs have network interface cards. This is a good way to transfer files. you can disassemble and reconnect drives to the XP machine. Remember, each new drive it sees is a hardware change. It's a bit cumbersome but you can also configure the PCs to transfer data through the serial or parallel ports. As for USB, I'm thinking your Win95 rig may not be able to support this at all. As for being Raid ready, this give no advantage to file transfers. Is the network interface card an option?

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Briefcase?
Apr 7, 2005 4:29AM PDT

Thanks for the reply, Steve.

All the computers have NICs. I just noticed that two have USB connections, so they may be Win98. It's been a while since I did anything with these machines.

I tried using Windows Briefcase with a serial cable between my Win98 Dell doorstop, er, I mean, notebook computer and my XP computer, but didn't have any success.

Perhaps I will try networking. Never got into it because I never had to. I have the hub and cables.

Let's see if I can find the Networking for Dummies book . . . .

Keep the suggestions coming, though. Meanwhile, I shall go install the 200Gb harddrive into the XP computer.

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Networking is probably best
Apr 7, 2005 6:39AM PDT

If you have the hardware already (or most of it) there's not much to do. You'll need a name for the workgroup and one for each PC....no big deal. You'll need to use a common client such as "Client for Microsoft Windows" and you might need the OS disks handy. You'll need IP addresses and I find static adressing easiest for myself. You'll need to set up file and print sharing and then share the drives or folders you want to transfer between. XP will be the tricky one depending on whether you have Home or Pro but things are simplified if you create a username and password for yourself and put that on each PC. Good luck.

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what if..
Apr 14, 2005 9:38AM PDT

What if the old computers are crashed and will not function. Is an external enclosure the way to go. I have several hard drives I would like to access that I cant because of different problems with motherboards, etc. How compatible are the enclosures with older drives?

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external enclosure
Apr 14, 2005 1:32PM PDT