Transferring files from MS-DOS to WinXP (modem to modem?)

Factual Questions
1

Greetings.

I have some old 386 and 486 MS-DOS desktop machines and I want to copy data from them to my laptops.

The old machines have serial ports, parallel ports, and internal modems (no ethernet or USB ports.) My laptops have ethernet, USB, serial, and parallel ports, and winmodems; they run GNU/Linux and MS-Windows XP. The laptops don’t have floppy drives, but even if they did, the amount of data to transfer would make using them impractical. (I am not going to spend days and days swapping disks.) Also, the desktop machines are all-in-one Compaqs which are rivetted shut, making it difficult to open them up and remove the hard drives.

I thought the easiest solution (i.e., the one not requiring me to buy new hardware or software) would be to connect the two modems together with a regular RJ11 to RJ11 cable and transfer the files with X/Y/ZMODEM-capable terminal programs. Trouble is, that approach doesn’t seem to be working for me, and I have no idea why not. I did this quite often fifteen years ago, but there must be something wrong, or something I’m forgetting. Anyone care to help me troubleshoot? Here’s what I’m doing:
[ol]
[li]Connect the two modems together with RJ11 to RJ11 telephone cable.[/li][li]On the DOS machine, load Telemate or some other terminal program. Verify that the terminal is able to communicate with the modem by trying out some Hayes commands.[/li][li]On the Windows XP machine, load HyperTerm or some other terminal program. Verify that the terminal is able to communicate with the modem by trying out some Hayes commands.[/li][li]On the Windows XP machine, type ATX3D.[/li][li]On the DOS machine, type ATA.[/li][/ol]
At this point, I can hear the DOS modem handshaking, but the Windows modem doesn’t do anything. If I try it the other way around, with the DOS machine dialling with ATX3D and the Windows machine answering, then I don’t hear anything at all. I’ve tried this with both laptops, and have tried two different terminal programs, but get the same results. I am beginning to suspect that this may be an issue with the telephone cable, but I can’t imagine why.

My other option would be to try transferring files through a direct cable connection, via a null modem cable or null printer cable. But I don’t know of any software that will allow an MS-DOS machine to talk to a Windows XP machine, or an MS-DOS machine to a GNU/Linux machine. MS-DOS itself has the INTERSRV and INTERLNK programs, but I don’t know if these will work with Windows XP or with Dosbox in Linux. Does anyone know of a DOS to WinXP direct cable connection transfer program?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

2

Man this ain’t gonna be easy. I might have known 10 years ago, but certainly not now! The cheapest thing I could think of would be a crossover cable and a cheap ethernet card, but the problem is that those are probably ISA slots in your old computer, and I don’t know if you can do that.

I remember having tried it a few times and failed.

3

You should be able to connect using a null modem cable (or a straight cable and a null modem adaptor) going directly from com port to com port, and using the same communication programs you already mentioned.

Connect the cable, start up HyperTerminal on the XP box, start the DOS communication program (Telemate, ProComm, etc.) set the baud rate, parity, data word length, start & stop bit lengths to match, and you should be in communication. You don’t any to use any of the old Hayes command set at all.

Then use the file transfer process to copy the files.

As a completely different alternative, consider temporarily pulling the drive out of the DOS machine, and using a USB drive case to hook it directly to the Win XP machine. The DOS drive is almost certainly a standard IDE drive, and will be formatted as a FAT or FAT32 drive, either of which XP can read.

You can then copy files using Explorer. Much, much faster and easier.

The USB drive connectors are cheap, for instance here’s one for $25 at NewEgg:

And when your done, you’ve got the external drive bay, which can be very handy to have. I keep one with me all the time just to make transferring data easy.

4

Some modems aren’t going to be happy if there’s no supply voltage on the “phone” line. Try sticking a 9 volt battery with a resistor in series between the red and green wires of your “phone line”. The resistor should be about 450 ohms or so.

You could also just connect the serial ports of the computers together. It’s been a long time since I’ve used it, but I think kermit can transfer the files between the two systems.

ETA: Technically, the line voltage should be 48 volts with a resistor to limit it to 20 mA. 9 volts usually works, though. 450 ohms comes from 9 volts with a dead short limiting it to 20 mA (9V / 0.02 A = 450 ohms).

5

Actually, neither of these alternatives will work, as the machines are practically welded shut. Compaq evidently decided that its customers were too stupid to upgrade their machines, and therefore went to great lengths to make them non-user-serviceable.

6

I’m not an electrician so I wouldn’t have a clue how to do this. I do, however, know someone who might have the necessary tools and skills to do this. Is what you’ve written all he needs to know, or should I show him a diagram? (If so, where can I find such a diagram?)

7

I’ve worked with a few Compaq systems and have always been able to remove the hard drive, although it’s sometimes tricky. What are the model numbers for these systems? I’ll bet that, collectively, we can figure out how to pull the hard drives.

8

That’s too bad. Although I’ve never seen one I couldn’t get apart in relatively few minutes (between 2 and 20, say) I know some of them can be buggers to get into if you don’t do that sort thing much.

But going back to your original question, I can’t see any reason the software you have now won’t work with a null modem cable. I’ve done similar things many times between DOS and windows systems, and even between a Commodore Amiga and a Windows system.

As long as the software on the machine can talk to the com port and transfer files with a mutually supported protocol (Kermit, x-modem, z-modem, etc.), it shouldn’t care what the software on the other side is, or what the OS is.