Backing up Very Old XP Laptop

[stevec59]

Hi,
I used to be a computer engineer but have forgotten the best ways to do things.
My friend gave me a very old XP Laptop and asked if I could backup the photo's, smash the drive and dispose of the laptop, so I took it away. My first thought was to remove the drive (IDE, fairly simple) and connect it to the USB port of my Windows 10 laptop, I have the cable to do that from years ago, so I did that, my Windows 10 PC makes a noise when I plug the drive in and I can see it in Device manager (2 Partitions, 1 being the manufacturers partition the other being Data), but nothing in File explorer not even a drive letter, I tried to Explore it in Drive Manager but it didn't let me, I can't remember what it said but I couldn't do a lot with it and I didn't want to wipe it.
So, I thought put it back in the laptop and do it the old fashioned way, it was Very Slow (256Mb RAM) and some of the files failed to copy.
So now I'm not sure the best way to proceed, I couldn't remember if Hirens Boot CD would allow me to back up and external drive connected via USB, also I'd like to back up to USB drive rather than CD, I don't think the laptop will do DVD.

Any idea's?

Many Thanks

Steve

 

[footprints]

Maybe I have got the wrong end of the (USB ) stick, but surely if it has a USP port just save all the photos to a large USB drive. Then load them onto the new machine, that's what I did from XP to 10.
Only problem was some of the word documents would not open in windows 10 'cos unlike in the past when the word processor was usually bundled in with the machine now you have to buy a full office program, unless you download one of the free third party one off the net. Stingy whatnots!

 

[Diver Fred]

As you have discovered connecting an 'old' (windows OS) disk to a Win10 machine isn't likely to work - it can and will corupt the old OS. As you have observed it may not 'see' the existing data on the disk.

The best way to is copy all the data you wish to keep to an external HD via USB (or if it's that old - a serial or even parrallel port). Once the data is copied across then it can be tranferred to another PC.

If the laptop has more than one USB why not build a Linux bootable USB stick (I suggest 'Ubuntu' but other flavours are available); that will boot from the USB stick provide the laptop is set to look at the USB ports first in the boot sequence (change in the boot manager }F2 or F8{ in boot sequnce). Once Linux is running you will have a file manager that you can use tio transfer data as you wish.

 

[pete50]

Not sure why you trued to explore it in drive manager. That will show the drive and it's partitons but wont show any data. It should just show up in This pc or if you don't have that on your desktop then you should be able to see it in "File Explorer" which is on your taskbar. If that still does not show the data then you should be able to view it by removing the hard drive and connecting it to an external IDE caddy to a USB port.

Connecting a drive via USB whether it be Win 95, Win 98, Win XP, Vista or Win 7 will let you see the data and doing that will not wipe the drive, either of them, providing the hard drive is actually working. I do this all the time without any issues. You may get Win 10 throwing up a warning saying "You do not have permission to view this drive" click continue and all should be revealed. As for using Linux Good grief talk about using a sledghammer to crack a nut.

 

[lostinthelight]

Not sure why you trued to explore it in drive manager. That will show the drive and it's partitons but wont show any data. It should just show up in This pc or if you don't have that on your desktop then you should be able to see it in "File Explorer" which is on your taskbar. If that still does not show the data then you should be able to view it by removing the hard drive and connecting it to an external IDE caddy to a USB port.

Connecting a drive via USB whether it be Win 95, Win 98, Win XP, Vista or Win 7 will let you see the data and doing that will not wipe the drive, either of them, providing the hard drive is actually working. I do this all the time without any issues. You may get Win 10 throwing up a warning saying "You do not have permission to view this drive" click continue and all should be revealed. As for using Linux Good grief talk about using a sledghammer to crack a nut.

Agreed, these gizmos are an essential part of kit and should do the job just fine and not too costly.
litl

 

[stevec59]

Not sure why you trued to explore it in drive manager. That will show the drive and it's partitons but wont show any data. It should just show up in This pc or if you don't have that on your desktop then you should be able to see it in "File Explorer" which is on your taskbar. If that still does not show the data then you should be able to view it by removing the hard drive and connecting it to an external IDE caddy to a USB port.

Connecting a drive via USB whether it be Win 95, Win 98, Win XP, Vista or Win 7 will let you see the data and doing that will not wipe the drive, either of them, providing the hard drive is actually working. I do this all the time without any issues. You may get Win 10 throwing up a warning saying "You do not have permission to view this drive" click continue and all should be revealed. As for using Linux Good grief talk about using a sledghammer to crack a nut.

Thanks for that. In Drive Manager you should be able Right Click on the partition and select Explore, I just tried it on my Win 10 PC and can see my Drive, I don't have the IDE drive connected at the moment, but that is what I tried, maybe I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens. I just used the Drive Manager route as an alternative as I couldn't see anything in File Explorer

I couldn't remember if I could see a Win XP Drive in Windows 10, I think Win XP was FAT 32 and I think Win 10 is NTFS, mind you I've just connected my USB Mem Stick and that's FAT 32, so it should be the same for the IDE Drive connected to the USB port, shouldn't it?

 

[stevec59]

Maybe I have got the wrong end of the (USB ) stick, but surely if it has a USP port just save all the photos to a large USB drive. Then load them onto the new machine, that's what I did from XP to 10.
Only problem was some of the word documents would not open in windows 10 'cos unlike in the past when the word processor was usually bundled in with the machine now you have to buy a full office program, unless you download one of the free third party one off the net. Stingy whatnots!

Soory should have stated USB Memory stick. If I plug a USB memory stick into the XP machine, and copy the files via XP, it's very slow and some of the files won't copy, I wasn't sure if this was just because the 256Mb RAM or the IDE HDD being a bit iffy, That'w why I wondered if I could boot the XP laptop off Hirens Boot CD and copy the files off to USM Memory stick, my thought being that if the XP OS isn't running it might be quicker and I'd have more sucess

 

[stevec59]

Agreed, these gizmos are an essential part of kit and should do the job just fine and not too costly.
litl

Yes, That's basically what I have. So I should be able to see the XP IDE Drive in File explorer?
What can I do if I don't?

Many Thanks to all,

Steve

 

[lostinthelight]

are you still able to boot the old laptop and view the .jpg files that need saving?
litl

 

[stevec59]

are you still able to boot the old laptop and view the .jpg files that need saving?
litl

Yes, I can boot the XP Laptop in XP. I actually went in Safe Mode this time and then Administrator, there are a few accounts on there, this allowed me to view some of the pictures, there is @ 4Gb of pictures on there, so I wasn't going to look at them all, I thought whilst it's going I'll back up to USB Memory stick, so far so good, bit slow.

I was wondering if I should run CHKDSK /f?
Actually I just got a Cannot Copy, is there someway of retrying a few times and if no success move on?

 

[lostinthelight]

Do you have enough free space on hdd to repair it?
have you tried spltting pics into smaller chunks and sending to usb pen if it stalls sending all? Cant remember if it will help, but are there any restore points available in system restore?
litl

 

[StephenStephen]

I'm wondering about copying the files you want to keep to a new partition on the existing drive, take the drive out, put it in a drive caddy (about a tenner) and then connect the drive to a different computer, copy the files over

 

[stevec59]

When I was working on the XP Laptop earlier, I decided to run the XP Drive repair tool, that tells you that you have to reboot and it runs CHKDSK/f, when it did that it found loads of errors, now rebooting again, stuck on CHKDSK is verifying file data (Stage 4 of 5) about 65%, so the drive is definitely a bit faulty, I'll let it go through and see what I can do