Long thread.
Found old 3.5 floppy disk.. 20 unused, 3 of my wife's used. One of them with old family recipes on it.
Then found an old laptop, a Toshiba Satellite 320cdt I'd forgotten I'd had. Windows98 and a version of Puppy GNU/Linux on it.
Floppy drive worked.
Oh, this should be easy.
Tried to burn a copy of her floppies to a CD. Kept failing. Copied to the hard drive in both OSes.
#z_lib #Software #qa_computer #computer #Windows98 #PuppyLinux
1/6
So tried to copy to USB in the USB port in the back. No USB Flash drives could be read. And I don't have a floppy drive in my current desktop or laptop.
Then I found older USB Flash drives. I found one that was only 512mb and thought that maybe it could be read.
Couldn't be found in Puppy Linux. Windows98 didn't find it.
#z_lib #Software #qa_computer #computer #Windows98 #PuppyLinux
2/6
So I tried the wifi dongle to connect to wireless. Probably too old to connect to modern wifi. Got an ethernet cord out. No ethernet port to connect.
Turned it off and on again, hoping Puppy Linux would detect it.
Nope.
Turned it off and on again, hoping Windows98 would detect it.
Yes!
But no driver!
Oh, fiddlesticks.
Maybe I could get a USB 3.5 floppy to USB reader? Or take it to a computer repair place?
Turned it off.
#z_lib #Software #qa_computer #computer #Windows98 #PuppyLinux
3/6
Turned it off.
And remembered the Internet Archive https://archive.org
Maybe they had older drivers?
Searched and used CTL-F to search for USB mentions in each old Windows98 page I used. Downloaded a few that might have it.
Found one that seemed promising.
Extracted it on my current laptop. Burned it to CD.
Copied from CD to Windows98.
#z_lib #Software #qa_computer #computer #Windows98 #PuppyLinux
4/6
Couldn't find the hardware detection program so turned it off and on again. Hardware detected, searched for driver on that CD.
Not found.
Huh?
Oh.
Copied to hard drive and ran as executable and searched again.
Winner!
I love love The Internet Archive!
Tried to copy and nothing would copy. Then realized I was trying to copy on wrong part of the USB drive.
#z_lib #Software #qa_computer #computer #Windows98 #PuppyLinux
5/6
Finally copied it all, saved to my own laptop and left with hers for her to copy.
I'm sure others would have an easier way to this, but I felt accomplished that I got it done.
6/6
Bonus.
I have a laptop I can write on that has no connection to the internet.
No distractions.
From the internet, anyway.