how can I access harddrive from dead desktop (W95) with a new laptop(XP2)

F

forest4trees

New Member
I have an old desktop computer that I cannot get to display on my moniter (which is fine), and I NEED to get some stuff of the computer before I trash it. The desktop is a clone running windows 95 and no ethernet card (yeah, it's that old), and I have a laptop running XP sp2. How can I do this without spending much money? Is it possible to access the desktop's harddrive directly from the laptop?

Thank you
:confused:
 
Can I do this without removing the harddrive from the computer? Can I get the laptop to run the entire computer (drives included)?

Thanks
 
The desktop keyboard monitor does not recognize that it is connected to the computer (it works fine as a periferal to the laptop), and the keyboard (which is new) does not function; I assume that the keyboard jack is damaged. I opened the computer up to see if there was any visible disconnect between the keyboard jack and the circuitboard (motherboard?) - didn't see any, and potentially damaged (?) the video card (the monitor recognized that it was connected prior to this, but I needed to hit "enter" to get past set-up because the internal battery needs to be replaced (otherwise I would have just used the mouse). I just want to remove some photos and files currently stored on the computer (and possibly download from an old camera (which I'm not sure where the software disc is). Ideally, I want to plug my laptop in as an interface and use the desktop one last time before pitching it (it is old enough to have windows 95, an earlier version of it). The desktop seems to run well, except that the internal 3V battery is dead and I have to interface capabilities.
Would removing the harddrive and using it as an external pose any problems for data retrieval considering the two different MS OSs?

Thanks for all of your help.
 
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Buy the enclosure from a store and return it when you're done. By the way, I'm Chris, with Dateline NBC. Why don't you have a seat over there?
 
...or keep the enclosure for future use...

Anyway, do you have access to another working desktop? If so, then the easiest way is to put the Win95 disk in that unit as a Slave drive and either network or do a direct connection to retrieve the data.
 
And as long as you still know the passwords (if you have them...) then you're good to go. Although you might encounter some compatiblity problems...
 
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