Ok here's the situation.

I have a source computer running Win98 SE and a destination computer running WinXP Pro. I am trying to transfer files of 1GB+ to the destination computer from the source computer. Since both machines have net access I thought FTP would be the best method but the source computer is firewalled and I am not the admin. and have not been able to get SmartFTP to work. A LAN or DCC will not work since the two machines are remote to one another. I don't have 4 miles of Cat5.

I though maybe I would try the following: Remove a hard drive from the XP machine that was formatted in FAT32 and install it in the source computer. The drive was operating without any problems on the XP machine. Transfer files. Return the HD to the XP machine and voila. Unfortunately, Win98 does not see the HD.

The BIOS has auto-detected the HD in the Win98 machine and properly recognizes it so I know it is installed and functioning properly. Why doesn't Win98 see it? Yes, I know Win98 sucks but that's not helpful.

I have also tried to transfer these files using a 1GB flash drive but that hasn't worked either. Bizarrely when I use this method, the window and progress bar shows up that files are being transferred but when I hook the flash drive up to the XP machine, there is nothing there. I have no trouble transferring files to the flash drive from the XP machine, only from the Win98 machine.

Please god someone help me figure out how to get these files transferrred without having to go to ridiculous lengths. My last option, as I see it is to .rar the files and break them into CD sized chunks and to burn them to an ungodly amount of discs. I desperately do not want to do this. At that rate, it'd be worth my while to buy a dvd burner for this machine and I don't want to do that either. anyone know what the answer is here? thanks

How about sharing the USB drive on another PC on the network, then copying to it that way?
Or, install USB HD and transfer via sneakernet.
Or, use file splitter and copy disk by disk onto floppies. lots of floppies....
Or, install HD from computer #1 into computer number two as slave (IDE or SCSI?) then copy locally. (auto detect isn't working from within BIOS?) Check your second IDE cable out. Bent Pins etc.
Do both computers have internet access? FTP "put" to a web host then "get" to the other PC.

Just some idea's.  You sound like you've already got the bases covered. Sounds like a trip to compusa for you!

It's likely that the new drive is too big for the old machine to recognize.  Putting the old drive in the new machine should work like a charm however.

I don't think Win98 likes the way NT/XP partitions hard drives.  Try repartitioning with fdisk, reformatting the drive, then copying your files.  XP shouldn't have any trouble reading it.  As long as you don't need to save anything that's already on the drive, that should work.

[Edited because I kant reed]

Try setting the drive up in a USB box.  If you have no data on it, reformat the drive from the Win98 machine, then copy files onto it, and then take it home to WinXP.

I can tell you from experience, that many times, Win98 will just choke on files that large.

Seems to be no rhyme, nor reason to it, but it does often, in my experiences.


Easiest way woul be to just take the Win98 hard drive, and swap it into the XP machine, as a slave drive.


Just set the jumper (to slave, of course) and slap it in the XP machine....

Should be no problems with it 'seeing' the drive, as you're going 'backwards compatible' now.

You can then just drag & drop the files wherever the heck you like.

This is going to be your easiest way, and will cost you no $$$'s

If for some strange reason, the XP machine doesn't 'see' the 98 drive, check BOTH drive's jumpers...

Occasionally some machines/drives require a different jumper setting on the master drive, if there IS NO slave, as opposed to IS a slave installed.

ie. no slave = one setting............. yes slave = different setting, on the MASTER drive too.

I've run across that as well, sometimes BOTH drives need new jumper settings.


Again, as far as file systems, there's no problem, as XP can read any & all Windows formats, FAT and/or NT based

Hope that helps  


Ohh, and don't forget to put the jumpers BACK when yer done !   haha.... BTDT


JB

What maybe easiest is to buy a USB thumbdrive - Fry's have them 512mb for about $29 - $39  and transfer half a gig at a time.  Less headache and hassle.

Quoted: How about sharing the USB drive on another PC on the network, then copying to it that way? Or, install USB HD and transfer via sneakernet. Or, use file splitter and copy disk by disk onto floppies. lots of floppies.... Or, install HD from computer #1 into computer number two as slave (IDE or SCSI?) then copy locally. (auto detect isn't working from within BIOS?) Check your second IDE cable out. Bent Pins etc. Do both computers have internet access? FTP "put" to a web host then "get" to the other PC. Just some idea's.  You sound like you've already got the bases covered. Sounds like a trip to compusa for you!

Tried using another comp (XP) on the network to transfer to the USB flash drive, same problem as a direct transfer from the 98 machine...acts as is it is transferring but doesn't.

I have no idea what sneakernet is...hmmm. can ya fill me in on this?

File splitting was the one thing I wanted to avoid...WAY to time consuming.

I tried moving the HD and using as a slave and then a master on a separate channel. Win98 doesn't see it

Yes, they both have internet access but I know almost nothing about ftp. Where would I find a web host willing to host such massive amounts of files?

Since the drive I'm using is blank, I'll try to fdisk it with Win98 first but I'm not so sure about that. As I mentioned, it doesn't even show up in Win98. I'll advise once I've given it a shot. here goes nothing...

Quoted: Quoted: How about sharing the USB drive on another PC on the network, then copying to it that way? Or, install USB HD and transfer via sneakernet. Or, use file splitter and copy disk by disk onto floppies. lots of floppies.... Or, install HD from computer #1 into computer number two as slave (IDE or SCSI?) then copy locally. (auto detect isn't working from within BIOS?) Check your second IDE cable out. Bent Pins etc. Do both computers have internet access? FTP "put" to a web host then "get" to the other PC. Just some idea's.  You sound like you've already got the bases covered. Sounds like a trip to compusa for you! Tried using another comp (XP) on the network to transfer to the USB flash drive, same problem as a direct transfer from the 98 machine...acts as is it is transferring but doesn't. I have no idea what sneakernet is...hmmm. can ya fill me in on this? File splitting was the one thing I wanted to avoid...WAY to time consuming. I tried moving the HD and using as a slave and then a master on a separate channel. Win98 doesn't see it Yes, they both have internet access but I know almost nothing about ftp. Where would I find a web host willing to host such massive amounts of files?

Sneakernet= copy data to disk...walk to other computer and insert. (sneakers used to be popular).

I don't have anyplace that will host a gig of data. Can you winzip it and try to copy to flash card then? It may be to big for your thumb drive. (I'm guessing yes).
Winzip it, then try to copy to your usb drive.

I think fdisk and reformat in the WIn98 did the trick. Copying files now... hopefully they'll still be there when I get the drive moved to the XP machine. Thanks!!

All you need to do is:

1) shut down the 98pc and open the case
2) detach the cable from the cdrom
3) Attach the XP hard drive using the 98 cdrom cables
4) start 98 pc in safe mode (type msconfig in run box, check safeboot under boot.ini tab)
5) transfer data
6) detach and close up
7) start in normal mode

Quoted: All you need to do is: 1) shut down the 98pc and open the case 2) detach the cable from the cdrom 3) Attach the XP hard drive using the 98 cdrom cables 4) start 98 pc in safe mode (type msconfig in run box, check safeboot under boot.ini tab) 5) transfer data 6) detach and close up 7) start in normal mode

I think I'm royally fucked now
I wish I had tried this first
I formatted under Win98 and transferred the files. Everything seemed to go ok. The files showed up on the Hd. Unfortunately, I cut and pasted the files since I needed the room to decompress other files.
I packed up and left the 98 machine and starting running the decompression
I got the HD hooked up to the XP machine and guess fucking what? 25GB of data lost fan fucking tastic. XP is showing only some 1.47 GB of the drive used whereas when it was hooked up to the 98 machine it showed 438 MB free after file transfer.

Long story short, 25GB of data have vanished into the ether and I STILL can't transfer the other 15GB or so I still have. peachy
peachy
I can't get over it. 25GB of data. poof
gone
forever

Go into Disk Management (Start -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management) and set up the drive as a "basic" FAT32 partition, then try browsing to it in Explorer again..

I checked as you suggested...already set up as a basic FAT32 and no files

Did someone follow this guy's advice?!?!

NO! BAD! He needed the data!

ETA: Use this! (if you don't mind paying the money)  IDE to USB2

Quoted: I don't think Win98 likes the way NT/XP partitions hard drives.  Try repartitioning with fdisk, reformatting the drive, then copying your files.  XP shouldn't have any trouble reading it.  As long as you don't need to save anything that's already on the drive, that should work.

STOP BEFORE YOU DO ANY MORE DAMAGE.

You need to find some one who know exactly what they are doing if the data is critical.

If the data is critical there is software that may be able to recover it, OnTrack Easy Recovery comes to mind. But if you keep messing with the drives you will destroy the possibility of recovery.

First ALWAYS BACKUP CRITICAL DATA.

Second do not ever try to transfer large numbers of files in one batch on a Windows 98 (or any non NTFS partition) you are asking for trouble if you do. Do a few files at a time make sure those files copy the do the next group, time consuming but safe. It may be a pain in the ass but if your data in important to you take the time.

Third when you are transferring that much data make sure you have more than enough room on the hard drive you are transferring to… And I don’t mean a few hundred MBs I mean GBs worth of extra free space. If you are transferring 40GB have 60GB available on the drive the data is being transferred to… 95%+ of the time you will get by without the extra space but sometimes bad things can happen when you crowd a HD with a lot of data that has little extra space.

Finally DON”T take advice on critical operations from unknown parties  over the internet unless you are absolutely sure they know what they are doing... there has been some bad advise in this thread.

He needed the original data copied to a different drive he would transfer between machines, which is the drive I was talking about.  I wasn't telling him to repartition and format his original drive.

Quoted: Did someone follow this guy's advice?!?! NO! BAD! He needed the data! ETA: Use this! (if you don't mind paying the money)  IDE to USB2 Quoted: I don't think Win98 likes the way NT/XP partitions hard drives.  Try repartitioning with fdisk, reformatting the drive, then copying your files.  XP shouldn't have any trouble reading it.  As long as you don't need to save anything that's already on the drive, that should work.

Quoted: STOP BEFORE YOU DO ANY MORE DAMAGE. You need to find some one who know exactly what they are doing if the data is critical. If the data is critical there is software that may be able to recover it, OnTrack Easy Recovery comes to mind. But if you keep messing with the drives you will destroy the possibility of recovery. First ALWAYS BACKUP CRITICAL DATA. Second do not ever try to transfer large numbers of files in one batch on a Windows 98 (or any non NTFS partition) you are asking for trouble if you do. Do a few files at a time make sure those files copy the do the next group, time consuming but safe. It may be a pain in the ass but if your data in important to you take the time. Third when you are transferring that much data make sure you have more than enough room on the hard drive you are transferring to… And I don’t mean a few hundred MBs I mean GBs worth of extra free space. If you are transferring 40GB have 60GB available on the drive the data is being transferred to… 95%+ of the time you will get by without the extra space but sometimes bad things can happen when you crowd a HD with a lot of data that has little extra space. Finally DON”T take advice on critical operations from unknown parties  over the internet unless you are absolutely sure they know what they are doing... there has been some bad advise in this thread.

Despite being on the internets, this looks like good advise.

Very often, when things start to go bad, people start trying lots of random things, and doing them rapidly. This usually makes things worse. If this data is important, stop, take a deep breath, get an expert. A REAL expert.

Also, you might want to consider that you can get a pretty large hard drive for cheap that you can use for copying things around.  I'd add that rather than having just more than enough room, have WAY more than enough room. Transferring 40 gig? Aw heck, get a 120 gig drive. No, get even bigger. What the hell!

Quoted: STOP BEFORE YOU DO ANY MORE DAMAGE. You need to find some one who know exactly what they are doing if the data is critical. If the data is critical there is software that may be able to recover it, OnTrack Easy Recovery comes to mind. But if you keep messing with the drives you will destroy the possibility of recovery. First ALWAYS BACKUP CRITICAL DATA. Second do not ever try to transfer large numbers of files in one batch on a Windows 98 (or any non NTFS partition) you are asking for trouble if you do. Do a few files at a time make sure those files copy the do the next group, time consuming but safe. It may be a pain in the ass but if your data in important to you take the time. Third when you are transferring that much data make sure you have more than enough room on the hard drive you are transferring to… And I don’t mean a few hundred MBs I mean GBs worth of extra free space. If you are transferring 40GB have 60GB available on the drive the data is being transferred to… 95%+ of the time you will get by without the extra space but sometimes bad things can happen when you crowd a HD with a lot of data that has little extra space. Finally DON”T take advice on critical operations from unknown parties  over the internet unless you are absolutely sure they know what they are doing... there has been some bad advise in this thread.

I have stopped. I guess I'll have to either pony up for another DVD drive for this one lousy purpose or go through the complex process of removing the one in the XP computer and installing it in the Win98 machine and burning the remaining files to DVD. Either way, this is ridiculous.

Because I decompressed a bunch of files after cutting and pasting, the files on the original drive are unquestionably written over. Unfortunately, despite the 30 odd minutes Win98 took to "transfer" the files, I don't think one piece of data was ever written to the drive I was using for transferring files so I doubt there is anything to recover

I am learning the hard way that Win98 simply will not deal with my files that are 700MB-1.5GB each. I'm just totally stymied. My biggest mistake was assuming that when the data was "transferred" to the new drive that I was ok. I should have verified that the data was intact before removing any original files. Boy, talk about a lesson learned the hard way. I still haven't reconneted the transfer drive to the Win98 machine but I fear that will only confirm what I already believe to be the case. Essentially, this is what happened when I tried to use the USB flash drive to transfer some of the <1GB files. Win98 would show them transferring and would show icons on the flash drive but then there was nothing there and WinXP could find nothing.

I tried doing this through another machine on the network and that too failed....same result. I also tried splitting files down to 10MB and transferring that way....bizarrely, the first few blocks of data would transfer but the majority of them would not. I just don't understand  

legalese77: Sorry you had to learn a very tough lesson in the computing world, the "ASSume." Makes an "ASS" out of YOU and ME. I've been in this business long enough, to know, no matter what system you are using from an IBM mainframe to the lowly desk top, and I can't emphasize enough, ALWAYS, ALWAYS double check to be sure that your data has been backed up, and that you can access the data on your backup media before you trash you valued original data.

Well don’t feel too bad despite my protestations above I to learned the hard way when dealing with Windows 98 and larges files. But I learned about 7 years ago… the pain is gone.

Always backup… Always verify the backup.

I doing this through another machine on the network and that too failed....same result. I also tried splitting files down to 10MB and transferring that way....bizarrely, the first few blocks of data would transfer but the majority of them would not. I just don't understand

One question does the network you are on use a switched hub or just plain jane hub and how many machines are on that network segment? Moving large data files over a network with just a hub can cause serious traffic problems and unreliable file transfer. If your network is still using a hub get whoever is in charge to get a switched hub, there are cheap and far more reliable.

Quoted: One question does the network you are on use a switched hub or just plain jane hub and how many machines are on that network segment? Moving large data files over a network with just a hub can cause serious traffic problems and unreliable file transfer. If your network is still using a hub get whoever is in charge to get a switched hub, there are cheap and far more reliable.

I'm not sure, to be honest. However, the intranetwork transfer came off without a hitch. I even tested to make sure my data was accessible and usable after transferring to an XP machine on the network. There are only 6 machines on the network. I encountered problems when trying to transfer from that other XP machine on the network to the USB flash drive...it did the old 'copying' with the progress bar and an icon showing my file appeared when I accessed the flash drive on that machine. I took the flash drive to the destination xp machine and poof, no files.