Can I hook up my ancient computer to my new one?
 

I have an old e-machine with windows xp. It's been sitting around forever because it has a number of photos from back in the day that I really would like to retrieve for their sentimental value.

Now that I'm stuck at home doing social distancing, I finally have the time to tackle this project. I'm thinking that I could attach my new PC (windows 10) to the old one and tell it to do a vampire routine and suck up both the pix and some of my long lost word documents from the e-machine.

Is this possible and if so, how do I go about doing it?

A direct connection seems much harder than using a portable USB stick, or temporarily uploading them from the old machine onto a free Dropbox account, etc.

Thank you, Clodfobble! The problem is that I can no longer boot up the e-machine. Is it possible to download an XP boot disk from the net without getting charged some outrageous fee from Microsoft?

could maybe buy a hard drive caddy?

I had to Google that one. Seems like it could be a possible solution to my problem, and apparently I can get one for $11.00 or so from Amazon. Worth a shot. Thanks!

I've got a similar question.

We sort of inherited a 2007 iMac. It's a beautiful machine and has a pretty nice monitor.

It's pretty slow though. Can't really surf the web with it. My son tried playing surviv.io and died almost right away because it was so laggy.

Does it have any use besides use as a stand alone computer?

I think I know the answer. This thing is a chore/money suck if we try to upgrade it and will never make us happy.

I see they go for about $70 on ebAY

Macs had an excellent implementation of Risk back in the day.

What happens when you try to boot it up?

Nothing? Error message?

Does it have power? (Do the lights and fans come on?)

Double check what kind of hard drive it is before you buy though (likely either hard disk or flash/solid state ) because I think the type of data retrieval needed is slightly different so you want to be sure the caddy will work for the type of hard drive.

Yes, for free.

Your old computer never forgot anything, it just forgot where it put it.

Yes, it has power, but it has no idea how to effectively use it (sort of like Trump).

Good to know that I won't be on some forlorn journey through the maze of the Internet, trying to find something that isn't there. That sort of holy grail quest was old even in the time of King Author. ;)

I think the damn thing knows perfectly well where my old pix and files are - it's just not telling.


*Meanwhile...*

I got busy giving my study/living room a bit of a make-over which I will finish up today. I will begin the task of liberating my old pictures and other files tomorrow. The 4th of July seems like an auspicious time to begin the project for reals.

Thanks to everyone for your input!

Yes, when things go boom, and up in smoke...:yelsick:

:lol2:

I found out the expensive way you can use any XP disc anyone has laying around, it's not keyed to a particular installation.

Read this.