Transfer data from OLD PCs

I'm trying to figure out how to get data off of hard drives from old MS-DOS PCs, as well as from the 5 1/4" floppies. My oldest IBM 5150 PC doesn't even have a serial port, and also is unable to connect to the NEC monitor I have from 1986.

Thanks so much!

 

For the hard drives its relatively straight forward - just set the old HD up as a slave drive using the jumpers next to the power lead and connect it up to the IDE cable in the PC you want to copy it to. It will then just be seen as another drive and you can copy or move what you wish.

If the new PC has a floppy drive controller then you could connect up the old 5 1/4" drive and again copy away t your hearts content. If the new PC doesn't have a floppy controller then you may well find it nigh on impossible. In fact the only way I can think of is to copy the floppies to the old HD before you moved it across to the newer PC.

 

Some of this is a little greek to me, but it occurred to me that I'm about to return a 'cage' I was borrowing that has the power and IDE connections that I thought I could use, but when I open the IBM 5150, the connection doesn't look wide enough for the IDE cable. ??

I only have a laptop and 2 external drives, so not sure how/where to connect the slave drive?

Thanks again.

 

The HD (ST-251) looks like it has the power connection on left, then IDE?, then smaller connection on right? If I take this drive out, is it likely to fit the cage I have? This just plugs into my laptop with a USB; I just used it on newer HDs to recover data.

 

By "cage", do you mean an external enclosure for a hard drive? If so, is it for SATA drives or IDE/PATA drives? Your coimments seem to indicate it's for SATA drives. Therefore, it won't work with IDE/PATA drives; you'd need an external enclosure that was designed for IDE/PATA drives.

 

I think these drives are really old. http://www.redhill.net.au/d/d-a.html

I'm not sure how to proceed unless the old computer is working and there is a way to connect a more modern device to it to copy the data onto. Or perhaps a specialty cable might make the connection. rolleyes

 

Yes, I definitely have a couple of dinosaurs here.

Well, being the bit of an amateur that I am, I'm thinking it's IDE, not SATA due to the link below and the fact that my IBM 5150 is definitely from the mid/early 80s. This link says SATA started in 2000?

It has the wide ribbon connector which looks like if I took the hard drive out, might fit to the external cage I have. I know the power will connect, just not sure what the other connection on the right side is; it's not nearly as wide. Does it need to be connected to something as well?

Not sure if this PC works or not since I can't hook it up to the monitor...been trying to figure out what cables I may need, but not sure what they are called or how to google them. The PC has parallel, but I need a serial? (9-holed connection) to the NED monitor I have. The monitor cable I have has 9 pins at each end.

I also have a Goldtech PC-II AD...can't find info on this when I google. This 2nd PC definitely works fine. I have not taken it apart to see what type of HD it has. Amazingly, a 5 1/4 disk I put in there last night is still readable too.

http://www.harddrivereport.com/pata_vs_ata_vs_sata_vs_ide.html

I guess the bottom line is even once I find the right cables, I need to find the right 'cage' for the data transfer? What are they called so I can google them?

Thanks again for all of your help so far. Would be great if I can figure out how to capture the data so I can get rid of these old machines.

 

Hi Lore,

The smaller connector on the right side is probably the jumper settings for Master, Slave and Cable Select. Thats usually marked on the Drive's PC board or on a label stuck on the back. That's Ms,SL and CS. Drives now usually have instructions for setting the jumpers on the label on the top. Sounds like a standard IDE drive. Maybe fits you external enclosure.

Good Luck, Jim

 

If you have taken the drive out....can you tell us what the model number is?

 

The monitor cable you have is an old fashioned 9 pin model. You will need a 9 pin to 15 pin converter. Just google for "9 pin monitor to 15 pin monitor cable converter". It is NOT a serial cable.

The HD cable is definitely an IDE cable.

 

I'm not sure the HD is an IDE. Look at this data sheet for that model http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/seagate/ST251-MCL1-42MB-5-25-HH-MFM-ST506.html. It shows the jumpers but also lists the type as MFM.

The hard drive should be sitting in a controller card, can you remove the controller card?

 

All of this sounds like DOS and Windows 3.x vintage hardware and software. As far as I'm aware.

 

Thanks for all the quick replies...I need to check some of this and get back to you. I see where the site shows MFM, though I'm not really clear on the difference between that and IDE.

Also, I apologize in that I just realized the HD is ST-251-1. I'm guessing it's not much different though.

 

I would definitely agree now that the ST-251-1 is MFM, which from everything I've been reading is going to make this process much more difficult...I think I'm getting in over my head, as it doesn't sound like there's going to be any easy hookup to my modern laptop to get the data off.

I'm thinking probably the best thing to do would be to get the monitor cable needed to connect it to this older PC. I actually don't have anything with 15 pins, only 9 and 25, so I need to look for that type.

Assuming I can get the old printer working again and can get a printer ribbon (Star NX-1000 II), and that I can figure out how to access my personal data via these old programs, I could just print whatever I want to keep and scan into my laptop or external drive...not sure if this is the way to go, but not sure what else to do.

What about hooking up a Lexmark Z52? Is this too new to be used on these old PCs? (It came with CDs.) It has the right 25 pin connector though.

Am I missing anything here?

The PC-II AD computer works and reads 5 1/4 floppies, so if I can get it to print, probably better than me trying to learn how to 'tear' the PC apart and figure out what to do from there.

Assuming I could transfer data somehow, can old .doc files be read in today's Word? Or can u open it in notepad? What about .db and .log files? What would read those?

Thanks again! Impressive response time on this forum.

 

Okay, I must be missing something with the monitor hookup. I can't seem to find any 9 to 25 pin cables...I see adapters, but not cables. They are all 9 to 15 as was suggested earlier, but I don't have anything on the old PC that 15 will connect to. I have 25F and 25M and I believe a 40F...that's it.

And, how do I know whether the monitor is supposed to hook to the 25 female or male connection since I have both?

Thanks.

 

This problem is beyond my experience. My common sense goes Yargwel's suggestion of getting a monitor up and trying to connect a 1.44mb floppy if connectors are present and copying data to it, then going floppy to CD on a PC and then to your laptop. All dependent on whether or not the 5150 boots.

A few links of interest:

Long thread on copying data from MFM HD. [I didn't finish the thread but there are a lot of details about how things work--May be a good forum to post your specific problem and get some hands on advice]

5150 specs

IBM press release (details software)

 

IDE = 1 cable: 40 pins

MFM = 2 cables: 34 pins & 20 pins


If that helps to confirm what you have.

 

Thanks for all the great links.

Ok, it's definitely MFM.

I finally found DE-9 male to DB-25 female cables (and more than I ever wanted to know about cable connections). I believe this is what I need to connect the NEC Multisync JC-1401P3A monitor to the IBM.

My question now is can I connect this monitor to an IBM 5150 via the cable just mentioned? (I read something about ruining monitors if trying to connect to other systems it isn't made for.)

I was hoping Laplink would help, but I don't have a 3 1/2 floppy drive, so seems like I'm out of luck there, so if I can hook up this monitor to the IBM PC, and can get the IBM running, maybe I can just print whatever info I want to keep via the Star NX-1000 II. I'm hoping the printer will work on both PCs.

Am I on the right track?

 

Ugh...from what I understand the IBM 5150 monitor is CGA. My only monitor can go between TTL and analog, so EGA and VGA, right? So, not compatible and can't connect to the IBM, right??

What about an RF modulator to hook the IBM to an old TV? Do you know how this works or what I would need?

Thanks.