you have several options , check if the machine is able to load an external
usb drive . if not investigate one of the linux distro which can , perhaps
puppy and boot in small form floppy , if it has a scsi port then it's easy or
you might consider installing dos and one of the older overlays which
prevelant years go when I started out . Basucally buy the machine and let us no
.. I am sure there is a simple solution .maybe even adding a cd drive and dos
drivers then load the files from there...
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
From: n9...@ameritech.net
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:26:14 -0600
Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] Off Topic
Or you can try a local hamfest - there are usually older laptops
that show
up there, too... some for as little as $10 - $20!
The biggest problem I have run into so far is loading Win98 onto an older
laptop with only a floppy drive... A friend of mine picked up a laptop with
an interchangeable drive bay, and then bought a CD Drive for the laptop.
Problem is: Win95 (loaded on the machine) won't recognize the drive, even
though it IS seen and recognized by the BIOS.
We think that *IF* we can find a way to load Win98 via floppy, we can get it
to recognize the drive, but for now, the CD is unusable. Problem is, Win98
is 200+ MB... That's over 200 floppies!!! *OR* we need the Win95 device
driver for the CD drive.
Sorry for going even further off topic...
Mark - N9WYS
-----Original Message-----
----(snip)----
> I am hoping to get an old dest top with Db-9, RS-232c working with
> my old
> Windows 3.1 software.
> This will mean taking this desk top to the repeater site, to program
> the repeater
> controller.
Get an old laptop instead. Even if you can't keep the battery alive,
it's a lot more convenient to lug an older heavy laptop around, and
then it comes with its own keyboard & monitor as a bonus. Old laptops
that will run DOS/Win 3.11 can often be found for far under $100 at
used computer shops. They're ancient and the shop doesn't want them.
Often it will cost the shop more to pay to recycle/dispose of them
properly, than to give them away to you, if you find the right junk
dealers.
> I have a USB to Db-9, RS-232c adapter w/ a cd software. If I could
> get a
> Windows AT program to work with XP.
A cheap old laptop loaded with DOS/Win 3.11/Win 98/whatever you
need... multiple boot it with multiple partitions if you like even,
that you set aside JUST for programming old radios. A bonus would be
to find a "twin" for it and image the hard drive, and have a spare.
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