Hi, Eventually I'll figure out which forum different questions belong in! I've had to start using an old system as a stand-in, and have some questions: 1] Is there some kind of maintenance/cleaning that can/should be done to the floppy drive? This one has always messed up floppies intermittently. Often a file created with it can't be opened and leads to error messages about cannot read or corrupted or something; and sometimes files created with it cannot be deleted -- will get message that permission isn't granted or something. None of it has to do with any settings I have chosen, because these things only happen sometimes. I do have a disk/data recovery program, but it is usually only able to recover limited "clusters." This unit was probably built in 1996 or so, and is sure dusty and neglected, but I think it has had this problem since pretty early on. 2] I would like to be able to use the USB external hard drive with it, that I bought recently for another PC. That ext. drive is backwards compatible (USB 2.0, but 1.1 workable). This old PC has no USB ports. My system info reads that I have only 1 parallel and 2 serial ports. I don't think if that covers everything, because I do have more places to plug things in than that. But it's a generic PC and was at best standard even in 1996, so we can assume it doesn't have much. How can I determine if there is an adaptor that will run my ext. drive with this PC? Does it sound like it probably doesn't have the "internals" to adapt to USB at all? 2a] Will having only a W95 OS affect the answer to the above? I can't upgrade this system to even Win98, because of some very expensive, old, proprietary software on it that I need for work, which the maker says may not function with an upgrade now layed *over* it (we don't have the physical software anymore). But please do let me know if the OS could be a key factor in achieving compatibility. (I find that often, manufacturers on either end of an equation can't/won't answer compatibility questions about ancient components). FYI, I do know that regardless of which OS, I'll have to download some BIOS and drivers. Thanks so much for any help! =8^ )

They make a head cleaning floppy just like a cleaning tape for your VCR. You can buy one just about anywhere. I recomend you buy a can of air and blow the drive out before you use a head cleaning floppy. And I'm sorry but Windows 95 does not support USB at all. Symbios

Thanks for the quick response! Will do on #1. Now, in case I take a chance on upgrading to Win98: the only hesitation is that the manufacturer of the software I need to save at all costs isn't sure their program will cooperate with the *upgrade* process, even tho it was built to be compatible *up to* Win98. We do not have the physical software anymore to reinstall afterwards. But say I do go ahead and upgrade. THEN will there be some kind of adaptor I can get to make an existing port on this 1996 (approx) PC work with a USB connection? Or, does there have to be some mechanism underlying the port that I probably don't have or something? Thanks! :^ )

Since you apparently have no backup of your software I would make a complete backup of your harddrive (on another drive) before attempting to install W98. If it doesn't work you are going to be in big trouble. I would prefer trying the copy of the hard drive in another newer computer. However first you would have to make sure you solve the hardware driver compatibility, then do the upgrade to 98. This would give you a motherboard that would be more compatible with newer hardware. What ever method you attempt I recommend that you get a working copy on another hard drive first.

Thanks all! Wizard, when you say... "I would prefer trying the copy of the hard drive in another newer computer...However first you would have to make sure you solve the hardware driver compatibility, then do the upgrade to 98... This would give you a motherboard that would be more compatible with newer hardware." For what would I need hardware drivers first, before upgrade? Do you mean that my circa 1996 machine in general is unlikely to be ready for Win 98? If that's the case I may be S.O.L. on doing this myself, as this is a generic old work PC I inherited. It has *no* manufacturer info on it/in it at all, and no one even remembers where it was purchased from. I don't know how I'd figure out what drivers it needs.... : ( And, when you say this: "What ever method you attempt I recommend that you get a working copy on another hard drive first..." I'd like to; and that brings up another question. How *could* I do that -- what backup devices would likely work with the very basic PC model of approx. 1996? I have no idea what device or method I could use to copy this machine's drive, or even documents (I don't trust floppies period, too much random bad luck on other machines too)... Thanks!

Since the software works on Win95 that is your base (reference) install. I would make a copy on another harddrive for use with a newer motherboard. I would need the Win95 drivers for all the devices on this motherboard. If the software works on Win95 the the newly installed drivers, THEN I would attempt to upgrade to Win98. Trying to change motherboard and upgrade to Win98 in one step may be too much. The method I would copy the drive is to 'clone' it, using software such as Norton Ghost, PoweQuest Drive Image or Partition Magic. If there is space a new empty drive would be installed and the software would make a copy to the other drive. My preference is to do this under DOS. Other wise remove the existing hard drive and install it and an empty hard drive in a newer computer and then perform the copy. If the newer machine has a CD writer you could also create disk image copies on CD. There is also a method of copying the software using a type of software called an 'uninstaller', which makes a copy of the software and finds all the registry entries and supporting DLL's, vxd's, etc. and makes an installler to install on another computer. However, you need a version that makes a copy, not uninstalls. My method is extremely conservative. It always retains the original computer and data in an operational form.

Thanks a ton, wiz fred! I have taken down all the info, and will ruminate over whether I should attempt it all by myself. But it's good to know I have options, and what they are! I have become too much of a 'net and general PC tinkering addict these days, so maybe I *should* force myself to have only a barely workable machine until I get a grip and start leaving this chair again sometimes! ;^ )