Not a bash on digital but...

[dlofgreen]

Okay just to let you all know I shoot digital at work but I shoot film for me. I like them both and hold the view that they are just types of photographic medium.

With that said, one of my coworkers has gotten a new computer and wants to move their digital photos to the new machine. Well, the old machine has Win98 on it, my coworker can't get the images off the old machine easily. This person had to yank the drive from the box and bring it into our IT dept. to get the images put onto a memory stick so they could be put on the new machine. The main problem was that Win98 doesn't support USB, so external memory (i.e. hard drives, flash drives) couldn't be used. There is no CD burner to burn images with, and this person has no networking knowledge to network the two together.

I think this is a classic example of images outlasting technology. I see a lot of anecdotal stories of "when technology changes..." and "The file format..." but this actually happened. This person is no techno junkie like a lot of us but wanted to keep all the photos they made of the family with thier PS digital camera.

Just sharing my funny little observation. 🙂

 

[taffer]

Time to open a modern host computer and fit it with the old drive to copy files 😉

Happens to many users at work 😀

 

[Kin Lau]

How did they get the pics on that PC to begin with? Use the same way to get it off.

 

[dlofgreen]

Hey that's a great question Kin!

So I asked, and apparently they have a cannon PS camera and it works for one download per boot. Each time they want to load images they can do it once and then they have to reboot. Weird.

 

[eric]

This person had to yank the drive from the box and bring it into our IT dept.

Since you have the drive out already, just put it in the new computer. Change the dip switches to slave and the new one in the new computer, move the dip switches to master. Or if the guy has another cable, he can leave it as is cause it'll still boot up with the orignal drive. Then the old (the one you yanked) will be seen as a new drive.

 

[dlofgreen]

That's what I said and got a blank stare back. This person has NO under the hood computer experience. Digital isn't so easy for those folks when things go wrong.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

That went through too much hassle!

One solution, in a nutshell (I'm not going to write the install. steps here):
- Install an FTP server on the target box
- Install an FTP client on the Windoze 95 box (I don't think that's even necessary).
- Move source to target.
- Voilá!

 

[Biber]

Windows 98 does have support for usb afaik.

 

[dlofgreen]

Gabrielma,
Like I said NO under the hood experience. The acronym FTP gets a blank stare too. Pushing a mouse and writing emails is it. Think "business user".

Biber,
Win98 SE does, not the plain old Win98. Guess which on my coworker has. Win98.

 

[eric]

That's what I said and got a blank stare back. This person has NO under the hood computer experience. Digital isn't so easy for those folks when things go wrong.

You mean the computer doesn't have an "AUTO" mode selection? 🙂

 

[bmattock]

Let me presume that the Win98 box has a network connection. Yes? Even assuming not - your IT department should be able to put an ethernet card into the box for a temporary solution. Then 'share' the drive with Windows 98 - it should be viewable by any other Windows machine on the network, depending on how your IT guys share it. Copy the files. Fast and easy.

Can't share the drive? Download and install a 'freeware' ftp server from www.tucows.com then set it up and ftp into it from another machine. Same effect, very fast.

I don't agree with trying to remove the drive and put it on a modern computer. Chances are the tech has changed between your old Win 98 box and the latest. IDE drives are not the thing anymore - you may find a modern PC has no IDE cable and won't cooperate between the old and the new anyway. Most of the new PC's are running enhanced flavors of IDE or SATA - won't talk to the old IDE. Not worth fighting the drive over. Ugly beyond belief if all does not go well.

High speed internet connection on the Win 98 box? Set up one of those 1 gig freebie email accounts and send the photos as attachments - then receive the email on the new machine.

Lots of ways to do this. If your IT guys can't figure this out - fire 'em. This is simple stuff.

Just some suggestions.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Sonnar Brian]

WIN98 supports USB. I am not running WIN98SE. WIN95a did not. WIN95 had a version which added USB support. I'm running WIN98 on my Micron Laptop and am running a USB PIC Controller development kit off of it. It is definitely NOT WIN98SE as the PROM burner that I use with it is always complaining that I do not have WIN98SE.

If the machine is old, it is possible that the BIOS must be upgraded to support USB. The Tyan 440fx motherboard that I have did not recognize the USB controller until I upgraded the BIOS. The hardware USB controller was on the motherboard, it was not supported by the original BIOS. I am running WIN95b on that machine, and use it with my SCSI based digital cameras.

 

[Socke]

That's not the fault of the digital camera, that's an operator problem. If you don't know how to use a computer, don't use a computer!

My, beloved, HP Omnibook 900 came in August 1998 with Win95 or 98 as a preinstalled option, when I turned it on for the first time a setup script asked me what I wanted and installed 98.
Including support for USB, IRDA, dockable DVD and Floppy, PCMCIA, you name it.

I used it with a Canon Powershot G1 hooked to the single USB port, with several Card readers on the USB port and with IBMs Microdrive Travlekit PCMCIA adapter.
I had a Lexmark Z52 on the USB port as well as a Fujitsu-Siemens USB Thumbdrive and a USB Wireless Lan adapter.
At the moment my SonyErikson V700i mobile hangs on the USB port so I can surf the internet from the hotel 🙂

The USB/Firewire case I bought two month ago came with a CD with drivers for Windows 98. Windows 95 and Windows NT4 were the last Windows versions without USB support, in 98 USB was installed as a third party driver and from Win2K and Win98SE on it was installed by default.

Your coworkers PC is at least six years old, he didn't need a backup in this six years! Pretty reliable computer, keep it!

Windows 98 on a 1998 notebook last year in Cuba, good enough to store 6GByte pictures from my Canon D60, and a spanish course 🙂

 

[dlofgreen]

Whoa!!! Okay first thing, our IT guys helped my coworker out and got the data without a hitch so there is not going to be any firing going on.

I would imagine that if you had drivers that came with a certain device it would work. My coworker cannot find any such device at the local bestbuygadgetstore. All of the new hardware do not support usb, so says my coworker.

All I am saying is that for a person with limited computer skills this is a daunting task. Of course for folks like us it isn't that tough. My coworker is a basic consumer photographer, the kind that shoots vacation snapshots etc.

 

[jano]

I can understand the situation with people who have no experience "under the hood" with computers. Where I work, I *am* the IT department (not even paid for it, just the guy everyone comes to). From a lay-person's perspective, computers are hard. From our (our, meaning those of us who know something about them) perspective, they're not really that hard.

Here's a suggestion: if you're in the US, have the guy take the old computer and the new computer to someplace like best buy or staples, and say, "transfer my pictures from the old computer to the new one." Personal stuff like this is really tricky dealing with it at work, because then you get tied into it and can lead t a real mess in the future, believe me, I know :bang:

Let them deal with it 🙂

 

[RML]

Easiest solution: get an external HDD housing (from about $25) with USB or Firewire connection (don't forget to have such a cable handy!). Stick in the old HDD (easy as pie!). Connect the housing to new pc/laptop. Switch on pc/laptop. External disk will be recognised immediately, and you're done!

 

[RML]

Socke, that kitchen looks exactly like my wife's kitchen when she was staying in India! Same tiles, same colour almost, same windows, same cooker, same butane flask.

Are you sure you didn't visit my wife in my absense? 😡

😉

 

[zeos 386sx]

Just for clarity...

Win98x has native support for USBv.1. You have to use WinXP to get native support for USBv.2. With appropriate additional drivers Win98 can do USBv.2.

 

[Socke]

Socke, that kitchen looks exactly like my wife's kitchen when she was staying in India! Same tiles, same colour almost, same windows, same cooker, same butane flask.

Are you sure you didn't visit my wife in my absense? 😡

😉

Hm, I'm pretty sure I was in Matanzas, Cuba.

Is your wifes name Beatriz and does she look like this:

 

[RML]

Hm, I'm pretty sure I was in Matanzas, Cuba.

Is your wifes name Beatriz and does she look like this:

Nope, that's not her. 😛