Hi,

I'm trying to copy some files from my parents old computer to their new one, I have a USB 2.0 flash drive which I intend to use for this purpose as the old computer doesn't have either a DVD or CD writer. But it won't recognise the flash drive, the new machine recognised it straight away. I have copied the driver files from the new machine onto a DVD and a CD but when I try to install them onto the old machine from either disc it doesn't acknowledge that they exist on the disc. It recognises other files but not .sys files, Can anyone help me please?

Trudy

Hi and welcome to PC Help Forum.

It may be that the drive is not being allocated a drive letter. Follow these steps to assign a drive letter;
How to assign a drive letter
To assign a drive letter to a drive, a partition, or a volume, follow these steps:
1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
Note If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance appears in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear.
3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
5. Click Add.
6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, and then either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use.
7. Click OK.

In Addition, it may be that you have not enabled the correct view for hidden/system files. Do this on the Old PC;
To see hidden files:
1.
On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options.
2.
Click the View tab.
3.
Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.

Thank you, the second part of your reply helped some, I can now see the .sys files on the CD.

I have downloaded the drivers from the manufacturers web site, put them on cd then transferred from the cd to the c drive of the old machine. However when I plug in the USB drive and go through the new hardware wizard I point it to the folder with the downloaded files and it says it cannot locate a driver for the device.

The main problem is that the old machine doesn't have a CD or DVD writer or an internet connection any more and they have about 1.25 GB of photos that they want to recover.

Any further thoughts gratefully received

Thank you

Trudy

Hello trudywinn, and welcome to the forum.
Can you give us a few details on your parents old system? What operating system does it have on it? If it has win 98, is it win 98se, and have you installed the drivers for flash drive support? If you can give us this information, a member of the tech team will get back to you soon.

Hi,

Thank you uncleed, yes the old pc is win 98se, I don't think I have installed the drivers for flash drive support, I went to the website of the manufacturers of the USB flash drive and found my device and downloaded the files for this os, followed the on screen instructions but it doesn't seem to be working. The old machine doesn't have internet access or a CD re-writer. The flash drive is a Buffalo USB 2.0 2gb flash drive

thanks again

Trudy

Youre welcome trudywinn.
Even win 98se had some problems with usb support. I would suggest installing the unofficial service pack available here:
Win98 SE
I have used this, and it normally fixes most usb problems with win98. Its about 16 mb download, if you can, try this and let us know if it works then. If you need any help with doing this, let us know.

Assuming both PC' are in the same location:

OLD PC: You locate the IDE cable which connects the hard disk to motherboard. Remove it from the motherboard end

NEW PC: Disconnect the cable which connects the CD-ROM to the motherboard at the motherboard end.

Connect the OLD PC hard disk to the NEW motherboard using the now vacant CD IDE socket using whichever cable. Turn it all on (clearly on the old one all you need is power to the hard disk).

The New PC will recognise the old pc hard disc and so just copy everything. .


Unless of course..............