Win 95 and WinXP

There is this old computer we are about to give away, its running Win95. My father wants me to copy some files. I tried to remove the hard drive and putting it in the new computer. But its installed in an ankward position, and I would have to remove the motherboard in order to remove the Hard Drive, and I am not going to do that.

Then I remembered that there was an ethernet card in this coputer, I plugged that in my router and I can now acess the internet from that computer, however, I am unable to swap files.

Since I can install NetBios on that old thing, I dont know what to do.

Any suggestions?

How many files? If they aren't too huge, just email them to yourself, or upload them in some other way, then download them later. Easier than fighting Windows.

I'd have installed Apache on the machine hosting the files and copy them over with a standard web browser myself, which might be easier if they're pretty large files - saves sending them out over the internet and back again.

That sounds like a Plan, however, can Apache read whatever file formal Win95 uses? I think its Fat16, but I really wouldnt know.

Oh, I thought you were moving stuff from the XP machine to 95 machine for some reason :p In that case, I have no idea if Apache works on Win95, however, I can tell you it'll have nothing to do with whether the drive is FAT16 or not.

Can't we try other methods, like plugging the two computers to a network or running a ftp or ssh server?

They're already networked but he doesn't want to/can't install Microsoft Networking on the Win95 machine :p But yeah, any sort of server that would work on those OSs would do, Apache was just the first I thought of :p

Ah, I see.

Would direct connect using an IM client be easier then? xD

You can try aim/msn/mirc with different usernames on both, or install a ftp server on the XP machine and use 95 to connect to it and upload. Or enable folder sharing on the XP machine with permission to modify the folder's content.

Setting up an FTP server just so you can transfer files to a new computer is like opening a Twinkie wrapper with a chainsaw. Just a bit of overkill. If you'd emailed it to yourself to begin with, you'd be done by now. Sometimes a stupid, yet very simple solution is better than an elegant solution. Especially if it's a problem you only need to solve once and then forget about forever. Especially on Windows.