I have a somewhat unusual project.
My mom was a writer, and like many people her age, she clung to her manual typewriter like it was a life preserver, refusing to even think about, much less actually learn how to use a computer till the mid 90's. The first computer she used, and the one she did 99% of her work on, was a 386 with one, 1.2mb 5.25" floppy disk, and a 40 mb hard drive.
Mom passed away in November of 2006 leaving behind about 300-400 5.25 floppies filed with stuff she wrote, all in Word Perfect 5.1 DOS format. Now, I know some of that stuff will be junk, but I need to sort through it. I need to sort through it, and copy that which is worth keeping, either, onto a hard drive in a modern computer, or burn these files onto cd, or dvd.
Believe it, or not, I have a working XT, with both a 5.25, and a 3.5 fdd. The problem there is that first, I don't know whether or not the 5.25 is a 1.2mb, or a 360k. I also have few 286's that I could configure to copy from one drive to the other. But in the end I still need to run the files copied from 5.25 to 3.5, to another more modern computer.
Here is what I would like to do.
I have an old AMD K-6 machine that still works, and has 98SE loaded onto it, with one, or two USB ports. The only possible drawback is that it only has one 3.5" floppy, not, a 5.25.
I know that I can run a ribbon, and a power cable from the inside of the case, and run a 5.25 from outside the case, and I will if I need to, but here is what I would rather do.
I have a Cumulus Corp. 5.25" external floppy drive. Now, I assume the drive works. I have the connector cable. what I need is a 37 pin FDD contrloller card. My questions are as follows:
1. Can I use an IBM 37 pin FDD controller, and will 98SE see it, and recognize it?
2. Will the bios of 98SE recognize a flash drive, or must I install an internal cd burner?
3. Will Microsoft word convert a Word Perfect 5.1 file automatically , or must I manually tell it to do so?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Cliff
My mom was a writer, and like many people her age, she clung to her manual typewriter like it was a life preserver, refusing to even think about, much less actually learn how to use a computer till the mid 90's. The first computer she used, and the one she did 99% of her work on, was a 386 with one, 1.2mb 5.25" floppy disk, and a 40 mb hard drive.
Mom passed away in November of 2006 leaving behind about 300-400 5.25 floppies filed with stuff she wrote, all in Word Perfect 5.1 DOS format. Now, I know some of that stuff will be junk, but I need to sort through it. I need to sort through it, and copy that which is worth keeping, either, onto a hard drive in a modern computer, or burn these files onto cd, or dvd.
Believe it, or not, I have a working XT, with both a 5.25, and a 3.5 fdd. The problem there is that first, I don't know whether or not the 5.25 is a 1.2mb, or a 360k. I also have few 286's that I could configure to copy from one drive to the other. But in the end I still need to run the files copied from 5.25 to 3.5, to another more modern computer.
Here is what I would like to do.
I have an old AMD K-6 machine that still works, and has 98SE loaded onto it, with one, or two USB ports. The only possible drawback is that it only has one 3.5" floppy, not, a 5.25.
I know that I can run a ribbon, and a power cable from the inside of the case, and run a 5.25 from outside the case, and I will if I need to, but here is what I would rather do.
I have a Cumulus Corp. 5.25" external floppy drive. Now, I assume the drive works. I have the connector cable. what I need is a 37 pin FDD contrloller card. My questions are as follows:
1. Can I use an IBM 37 pin FDD controller, and will 98SE see it, and recognize it?
2. Will the bios of 98SE recognize a flash drive, or must I install an internal cd burner?
3. Will Microsoft word convert a Word Perfect 5.1 file automatically , or must I manually tell it to do so?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Cliff