Subj : NEC Versa 4000 Laptop! To : All From : Aurelius Date : Tue Nov 05 2019 16:18:08 Hey everyone! I came up to visit my dad, and I mentioned that I was looking for an old 386/486 era computer (for various reasons), and he mentioned he had a Pentium 1 laptop. Close enough! So when I got here I started playing with it. It has a 520MB hard drive, with Windows 95 installed. Unfortunately the floppy drive is not working properly, so I have been trying to figure out a good way to get files on and off of it. At the moment, I will be taking a two-pronged approach when I get home. My main PC at home (running Win 10) has a dual serial/single parallel port card in it. I will use Hyperterminal on Win95 to hopefully transfer the entire hard drive to my modern machine so I can back up what is on it. Then I plan on getting a dual CompactFlash to 44-pin IDE replacement. That way I can very easily move files on and off, and have multiple different OSes when I want. I am going to use it for a few different things. Originally, I wanted it because I am learning x86 assembly, and the older processors are a bit easier to learn with/use. It also will be useful for playing DOS games. And, because it has a PCMCIA Modem/Ethernet card in it, I eventually want to be able to dial into some boards so I get the "real" experience for the first time. Should be a lot of fun! The issue with the floppy drive is that it uses a proprietary connector, and I haven't been able to find a replacement that isn't outrageously priced (the only one I saw on eBay was listed for over $200, and that is before shipping and customs). I was thinking about maybe getting an external floppy drive, not sure if they were common or not. It does have two PCMCIA slots, which is nice. This series of laptop also had a docking system that I would LOVE to get my hands on. It allowed two more IDE drives to be installed, plus more ports and a bunch of other features. I havne't even been able to find much info about it beyond what is in the user manual for the machine. Any ideas on what to do about the floppy drive replacement would be greatly appreciated! cb»» caAurelius Badass Engineer z0cA.z0cFz0cA------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------.z0 z0cA|z0cD 8086, 8088, 286, 386, 486 . . . "Pentium?!" z0cA|z0 z0cA`------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----'z0 --- CNet/5 * Origin: Badass Amiga Board aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (80:774/68) .