[spy53]

I currently still use a Dell V333 (98SE) Pentiom II I bought in 1998. It came with 6Gb drive. I have added 80gb slave drive since then. I only have 3.5 floppy, Iomega 100mb drive, and CD-ROM. It has 320 mb ram. 2 USB 1.0 slots but no ethernet card onboard (I use a cable modem from rogers that uses one of the USB slots)

I have just purchased a Dell E520 Pentium D 915 dual core 2.8ghz with 2gb ram, 500gb drive, 13-in-1 media reader, 1394 firewire port, Vista Home Premium OS, ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256mb PCI-Express card, 22" digital flat panel screen, CD/DVD burner. 10/100 ethernet card. etc....

I need to get some data off of the old machine onto the new one. So my questions are:

Will Vista accept data from the 98SE machine?
Can I use some kind of ethernet connection to connect the machines for file transfer using shared folders? or do I need to get a stand alone peripheral media device to back up onto? e.g. cd/dvd-burner or hard drive.
Could I use gmail to store data sent in emails and then receive via gmail into vista?
Could I take my old PC to a Techy shop so they can pump the old drives(s) to a burner and then load onto the Vista Machine?
Any other ideas? or am I buggered trying to do this?

I know some of these suggestions may be a bit odd but I need help!

Kind regards, Stephen Young (spy53)

[robomatic]

Hey, Spy, I know you'll get some knowledgeable responses but I'm going to throw some quick ideas out there.

Your problem is a very common one that most of us face when we transfer to a new platform.

There are products specifically designed to help you with this, although I don't know if they stretch from Win 98se to Vista (though I don't see why not).

You didn't specify what your 'data' was. To me data is stuff like word files, spreadsheets, jpeg photos, and such various items as music files and html files. Most of those things can just be transferred via any medium. I have come to the conclusion that maintaining my data on an external hard drive can be very useful and also an easy backup. External HD's are inexpensive and reliable. I especially liked Western Digital's MyBook which is available as a 500 GB with both USB and Firewire connects.

Otherwise there is a way to link your computers directly, but you may have to purchase software and a connect which will be less useful to you than the aforementioned external drive. You can also upload your data to the net, than download to the new machine.

Obviously, if the data is the product of software that you do not have on the new machine, it won't be terribly useful to you there, you didn't get too specific but I think those kind of issues are obvious.

Enjoy your new machine and use the heck out of it!

[frangeb]

You must be a Gemini, spy53, or at least my long-lost twin brother. I am the recent proud(?) owner of a Dell E520 equipped with Vista Home Premium. It's not as fancy as yours, just 80 gigs on the HD, and 1 gig of RAM, but I have the same questions as you do. My previous machine, the one I'm sitting in front of at the moment, is also running win 98SE. I, just being fat, dumb, and happy (well--not so much the first one) just loaded about 500 megs of 98SE files onto a 4 gig Memorex TravelDrive (I strongly recommend these. They beat CDs all around the town for convenience and storage/unit volume) and dumped the contents thereof into the Dell. The result: some programs work, some don't; Family Tree Maker, a genealogy program does great, as does a small units conversion program, as does an old 1995, Lotus123-like spreadsheet program called As-Easy-As 123.
On the other hand, Word 2000 won't fly. So you pays yer money and yer takes yer chances.

Now if I could just find some way to efficiently and conveniently view the contents (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, etc) of thewin/98SE/ Netscape 7.2 mail program that I also dumped into the Dell. I have loaded Netscape 8.1.1 into the Dell, but it doesn't have a mail program associated with it. Netscape 8.1.1 went in like a champ, if anyone cares.

If amyone has an idea what I could use in the Dell as a substitute for Netscape communicator in the win98SE, I shure would like to hear from you.

[Rich-M]

The easiest way to accomplish this assuming the 98 pc does not have a cd burner, would be to take the old hard drive, change the jumper to slave, and then plug it into the ide cable on the new dell and simply copy off or import whatever you need. You probably need to change the jumper on the cd drive though because mfgr's usually use "cs" for cable select and you will need it to read master to accomplish this with slave ide drive. The jumper settings are usually on the drive or you can Google i.e. "IBM hard drive jumper settings" for the answers.
The jumpers are the pins between the flat wide ide cable and the smaller 4 pronged electrical plug on both drives.

[frangeb]

I wonder if I'm understanding you, Rich-M. I have a neat little 4 gig Memorex TravelDrive that I can plug into my old Win98SE system. I can then dump the whole Netscape 7.2 Navigator/Communicator package into it, all 183 mb, and then transfer it to the Dell. Will the Vista OS accept it? Can I then put a shortcut on the desktop to run it?? Seems too good to be true!! I could do the master/slave HD thing as you have outlined it above but wouldn't it have the same final result as what I'm doing with the TravelDrive? Or very possibly I don't understand what you're doing. My final objective is to get a mail program into my Dell that I can perform the usual e-mail operations on.

[Rich-M]

No programs need to be installed...files and data can be copied. However you can transfer you Bookmarks the way you mention, though I haven't used Netscape in years, I would bet there is an export function in it from File which would be the easiest or simply find the folder and copy it.

[frangeb]

Let me push the point, Rich-M. I'm no hotshot with these matters, so I learn slowly. I have about 120 megs of Mail that I want to copy to my Dell/Vista system and be able to do all of the usual Search, Copy, etc. functions on it. I'd like to incorporate it into whatever new mail that should come along. I have no particular affection for Netscape except it's what I started with many years ago and it has satisfied my needs. Any other mail program which would accommodate the netscape Mail would be just fine with me. I've tried talking to Netscape but so far they've been good at answering questions that I haven't asked. All that I have found out is that Netscape doesn't have a mail system compatible with Vista. Some day in that Great Tomorrow....but not now. If it would work I could copy the entire Netscape program - all 238 megs of it - from the win 98SE system, load it into the Dell and put a shortcut on the desktop.

At this time I have the Users branch of the Netscape tree loaded into the Dell and I can read the various subfiles of Mail (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, etc.) through Wordpad but each subfile is one long text document.

Can I somehow introduce Netscape Mail to Microsoft Mail??

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Rich-M]

I only see Outlook, Outlook Express and Microsoft mail as importable. Why not use Outlook Express on the old pc, and go file import messages from Netscape mail which OE will import. Then you can import them to Windows Mail in Vista.

[frangeb]

Hi, again, Rich-M, I just blew a long letter to you about Importing from Netscape to Outlook into cyberspace somewhere. I have to re-do it. (sigh)

[simpswr]

FWIW . . I find importing into Outlook Express to be more efficient than into Outlook . . same with exporting.

[tjb]

You could also use Mozilla Thunderbird. You could install it on both machines, Import the mail on your 98 and move the profile to your new computer and you done. I can give you more directions if you decide to do it this way

[frangeb]

I appreciate your replysgents. but allow me state the situation as it seems to be and see if it makes a difference in your suggestions. It is a bit long but please see it through, if you will. I was actually able to Import some files from Netscape Mail to Outlook Express. But when I tried to do it a second time with what I thought to be the same routine it didn't work, and I don't know what I did right the first time.

The expected path in Windows Explorer - the one I think I took the first time - is
C:\Prog Files\Netscape\Users\Frankge\Mail There in Mail you find 19 files, 8 each system files and matching .snm files, 2 each created files and matching .snm files and 1 .dat file.
This list is the one I think I imported, but it's only part of what you see on the LH side of the Netscape Mail window. There, under frankge@sprintmail.com@sprintmail.com (the double @ is no typo) you see the full complement of 5 system files and 10 created files.

The path C:\Windows\App.data\Mozilla\Profiles\Frank\cgs80m7g.slt\Mail\pop.sprintmail .com
takes you to the same set of files found in the Netscape Mail window. There are a couple of other paths to be seen in Windows Express that start at C:\Windows and end at sprintmail.com. I think these were left over after thrashing out one or another connectivity issue with Earthlink Tech Support. I'll post them if you think it significant.

There follows below the Import routine:

1. Bring up Outlook Express

2. Click up Files/Import/Messages. Two windows appear: 1) Outlook Express "Some
errors occurred while processing the requested tasks...review the list of errors". Only
one error is shown: "The host "pop.Sprintmail.com could not be found. Please verify
that you have entered the server name correctly". Account "mail.sprintmail.com" ,etc.,
etc. (At this point I haven't entered _any_ server name, but there does appear to be a
grey bar in which something (a server name?) should have appeared. Click the box
away. 2) Outlook Express Import: Select Program to import. (10 choices given from
Eudora to Netscape mail (v2 or v3)).

3. Choose Netscape Mail (v2 or V3). Click "Next" Up comes box: Location of Messages:
It was determined that your messages were stored in the following location.
(Location slot blank) If this is not the correct location...please select a new folder.
(A Browse button is at right of Location slot. Use it to choose path C:\Prog
Files\Netscape\Users\Frankge\Mail).

4. "OK" choice of path. Path appears in Location slot.

5. "Next" choice of path. Box appears: Select Folders: Select the message folders that
you would like to import. Choose "All Folders" or "Selected Folders" (The files listed in
the first part of the 2nd paragraph are listed, less the .snm files.) Choose "All Folders"

6. Click "Next". A box appears: Not all of the folders in the 'INBOX' could be imported. An
error has occurred. (error is not specified).

7. "OK" the box. It appears again, this time with 'TRASH'

8. Each "OK" brings up another box until all files have been presented. With final "OK" the
box disappears and another appears Congratulating for successfully Importing my
Netscape mail to Outlook Express.

So that's it. Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Rich-M]

You sure got me...I am not quite sure what is happening here and I have read it 3 times.
I really don't remember where the files are as I doubt I ever used that mail program, and haven't used 98 for at least 5 years. (I no longer work on 98 or Me pc's in here. It's just too much trouble with drivers and too many unbillable hours to a client trying to fix.)

[frangeb]

It seems that I have to cut this thread, gents. I have a family emergency that makes computers of low priority. My apologies and my sincerest thanks for the interest that you have shown in my problem.