Windows 95 files on hard drive

[ninja]

Our old PC (currently residing in the loft) was Windows 95. There are various old emails etc that we need to get off of the hard drive. Our new PC (Vista) has a space for a second hard drive to be put in. If I take the old drive out of Win95 PC & put into spare slot on Vista PC will I be able to retrive the files I need? Also I am assuming that once I have retrieved what I need to, then I can reformat the drive, thereby increasing my storage capacity?

Any help gratefully received (I have some computer knowledge but nothing too techy please!)

[ChuckFickens]

First thing, old computer will have an IDE hard drive in it, new computer will have SATA hard drives (different connectors) so you'll have to check that the new computer actually has a connector onthe motherboard to plug an IDE drive into, otherwise your onto a no-go from the start.

as long as it does have an IDE connector then yep, pretty much just plug it in and you will see another drive appear in "computer" and you can then just copy any files you want across to the new drive.

If the new computer does not have an IDE port on it to connect the old drive then a USB caddy for the old drive is going to be your easiest route to retrieve the data from it.

Once you have the files you need you can format the drive and use it as extra storage on the new machine, but is it worth it? your new computer will probably have at least a 160GB (+) drive in it, the old drive is probably tiny compared to that!

[RATTER15]

I would suggest keeping things a little more simple, just transfer everything you want off old PC onto disc or flash drive and transfer it that way, you really don't want the HD out of prehistoric windows95 PC in your new PC, just buy a new HD if you need additional storage, getting so cheap these days!!

[ninja]

Tried going down the flash drive route, but the PC would not recognise it as a drive. Got an external hard drive already but this will not work either as it cannot find any drivers for it. Cant burn to disc as the drive in the old pc is cd read only - it's that old it has a built in floppy drive! Might have to look at getting a caddy.

[ACtheTROLL]

windows 05 doesn't support usb
there was a patch - but it only works with certain devices - and unlikely to work with ext drive of any type

your easiest method would be to use a network share ...
or
if you can find a 95 compatible card - or a laplink cable .... or
floppy disc is good - a usb floppy for your new machine will only be �10 - fire up the 95 - open the mail - save as text - or copy paste to text doc - save to floppy

transfer to new ....

if new is vista - old is 95 - I don't think the office software has direct compatibility