E-Mail May Be Best Bet to Transfer Old PC Files

QMy mom has an old 386 computer with some text files of a book she wrote. She would like to transfer files to her new computer (a Pentium II), but the old one has those large floppy drives. How can I help her with this project?

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ANormally, we’d suggest an external Zip drive with a parallel port connection, which would cost you about a hundred bucks and could be connected to both computers. But, looking at Iomega’s specs for its Zip drive, it’s not clear that the drive will operate on a 386 box. Still, if you’ve got a drive sitting around, trying that would be our first choice.

Our second choice would be e-mail. Yes, you can send e-mail using a 10-year-old computer. You didn’t say what kind of operating system you’re running, but this would be easiest with Windows 95 or a later version because those have a TCP/IP stack built into them. If you’re using Windows 3.1, you’ll have to dig up software that will set up the stack for you, which lets the computer speak on the Internet. So, set up e-mail on the 386 (using your existing Internet account), send the e-mail containing the needed data as an attachment to your own address, shut down the 386, fire up the Pentium, download the e-mail on the Pentium and you should be done. Let us know if what we’re proposing isn’t practical, and we’ll cogitate some more on this for you.

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QI have an antique Hewlett-Packard PC with a piece of software on it that is used by my partner to access the mainframe computer at his work to monitor batch jobs. It saves him from having to go into the office at all hours to keep track of his jobs. The question: How can I copy or transfer that software to a newer IBM PC so we can donate the old HP to a family member? I’ve tried everything, from simple copying of the files to floppy (not enough memory on the floppy) to trying to compress the file. So far, nada. Apparently, the software is not replaceable anymore through his workplace.

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AYou can try the methods we suggested in the previous answer, but we’re not very hopeful. Moving data from computer to computer is pretty easy, but just trying to slap a program in usually breaks something. Program installation is hideously complex in Windows (which we assume you’re using), and it’s best to follow the standard installation procedure if you don’t want to mess up your machine.

We’ve had good luck getting copies of antique software doing keyword searches on the Internet or posting requests for help on electronic bulletin boards. If you’re lucky, some pack rat has been holding on to what you need.

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Dave Wilson is The Times’ personal technology columnist. Submit questions to Tech Q&A; at techtimes@latimes.com.