I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running W98SE.
The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just hang
on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but it
has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want to
save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either by
a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
simplest/best? How can I do it?

Thanks so much,
TJ

Tojo wrote:

> I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running W98SE.
> The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just hang
> on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
> boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
> the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but it
> has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want to
> save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either by
> a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
> simplest/best? How can I do it?
>
> Thanks so much,
> TJ
>
>
Depending on the BIOS in your laptop, you might be able to set up a
boot server and net boot. However, the prognosis is not good.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

Tojo wrote:

> I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running W98SE.
> The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just hang
> on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
> boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
> the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but it
> has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want to
> save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either by
> a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
> simplest/best? How can I do it?
>
> Thanks so much,
> TJ
>
>
BTW, have you tried booting into safe mode? With what results?

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

"Tojo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:4319e9d1$0$1555$(E-Mail Removed):

> I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running
> W98SE. The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot.
> Scandisk just hang on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it,
> but it just doesn't boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I
> bought it, so I don't have the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't
> have a floppy disk drive but it has USB ports and a network port.
> Before I format the damaged HD, I want to save some files that are
> still there, and I was thinking to do it either by a USB pen drive or
> over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the simplest/best? How
> can I do it?
>
> Thanks so much,
> TJ
>
>

One option is a bootable CD that will boot to '98. (I am assuming the
notebook has a CD drive.)

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/ has instructions for creating DOS boot CD's.

Another option is to pick up a notebook IDE to standard IDE adapter and put
the HD in another computer as a slave. Somethng like this:
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...ct_code=294956
&pfp=srch1 , $8.00 at CompUSA.


That way, you can run all of the recovery utilities necessary, 'locally'.

Tojo wrote:
> I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running W98SE.
> The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just hang
> on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
> boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
> the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but it
> has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want to
> save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either by
> a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
> simplest/best? How can I do it?
>


Unless you can get the laptop to boot, you cannot access it's hard
drive via a network or USB thumb drive; both methods require the OS to
be running. As you cannot boot the laptop, your only option would be to
purchase a special adapter that would enable you to slave the laptop
hard drive into another computer.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

Slave it into another box. Then see if that box can read it and gain acces
to the files. If yo have any form of encryption, try ghosting the drive
using the options -f, -r and -o (">ghost -fro"). It might take it a while,
but it may get enough back to boot and recover some files.

"Tojo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4319e9d1$0$1555$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running W98SE.
> The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just
> hang
> on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
> boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
> the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but
> it
> has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want
> to
> save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either
> by
> a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
> simplest/best? How can I do it?
>
> Thanks so much,
> TJ
>
>

The adapters are not expensive, all they are (usually) is a board with
different pin spacing on each side.

"Bruce Chambers" <(E-Mail Removed)3t> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Tojo wrote:
>> I have a machine running W2K Professional and an old laptop running
>> W98SE.
>> The laptop hard disk has some bad sectors and won't boot. Scandisk just
>> hang
>> on 84%, and I've run several other tools to fix it, but it just doesn't
>> boot. The OS already came in the laptop when I bought it, so I don't have
>> the W98 installation CD. The laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive but
>> it
>> has USB ports and a network port. Before I format the damaged HD, I want
>> to
>> save some files that are still there, and I was thinking to do it either
>> by
>> a USB pen drive or over the network to my W2K machine. Which is the
>> simplest/best? How can I do it?
>>
>
>
> Unless you can get the laptop to boot, you cannot access it's hard drive
> via a network or USB thumb drive; both methods require the OS to be
> running. As you cannot boot the laptop, your only option would be to
> purchase a special adapter that would enable you to slave the laptop hard
> drive into another computer.
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
> Help us help you:
> http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
> both at once. - RAH

"Kurt" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> The adapters are not expensive, all they are (usually) is a board with
> different pin spacing on each side.
>
yes cheap, as I said....

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...ct_code=294956
&pfp=srch1 , $8.00 at CompUSA.

is it pin spacing or number of pins only. the one shown above seems to
break out power...says 44-pin F to 40 pin M, with a power connector
pigtailed off of it.