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  • PCMCIA Card to USB 1 Adapter

    From jaugustine@verizon.net@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 8 13:06:18 2018
    Hi,

    I bought a Win95 laptop around 1996. This laptop does NOT have
    a USB port. Years later, I installed Win98se to replace Win95.

    It has a FDD (floppy disk drive) and CD drive. Also has two PCMCIA card slots. The FDD no longer "works". I searched for an external FDD that connects to the LPT1 (parallel) port without success.

    Is there a PCMCIA card to USB 1 adapter available anywhere?
    Of course, I will need a driver for it.

    Thank You in advance, John

    PS, In the meantime, I can use "PC Link" (laplink type program) to transfer files, but not very convenient.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JJ@21:1/5 to jaugustine@verizon.net on Wed May 9 05:26:39 2018
    On Tue, 08 May 2018 13:06:18 -0400, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:
    Hi,

    I bought a Win95 laptop around 1996. This laptop does NOT have
    a USB port. Years later, I installed Win98se to replace Win95.

    It has a FDD (floppy disk drive) and CD drive. Also has two PCMCIA card slots. The FDD no longer "works". I searched for an external FDD that connects to the LPT1 (parallel) port without success.

    Is there a PCMCIA card to USB 1 adapter available anywhere?
    Of course, I will need a driver for it.

    Thank You in advance, John

    PS, In the meantime, I can use "PC Link" (laplink type program) to transfer files, but not very convenient.

    There are plenty, IMO. Just Google it using below query (with the quotes).

    "pcmcia to usb" -"usb to pcmcia"

    One of the result gave me this:

    <https://www.amazon.com/PCMCIA-CardBus-Adapter-Laptop-Computer/dp/B0154XURGY>

    As for drivers, I'd suggest finding out whether a product includes a Windows
    9x driver or not, before buying. Fortunately, the above example page has
    that information.

    Since most of these products are old, chances are that the information is no longer available in their manufacturer's website - or the website is no
    longer exist. In this case, you can use archive.org.
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@21:1/5 to jaugustine@verizon.net on Tue May 8 23:16:23 2018
    jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:
    I bought a Win95 laptop around 1996. This laptop does NOT have
    a USB port. Years later, I installed Win98se to replace Win95.

    It has a FDD (floppy disk drive) and CD drive. Also has two PCMCIA card slots. The FDD no longer "works". I searched for an external FDD that connects to the LPT1 (parallel) port without success.

    Is there a PCMCIA card to USB 1 adapter available anywhere?
    Of course, I will need a driver for it.

    I recently bought a new USB 2 adapter for CardBus online, I didn't
    notice any PCMCIA cards that would work with your laptop still being
    made. Of course there may often be second-hand and new old stock
    options available, depending on the country you're in (I just spotted
    your Email address domain - you shouldn't have much trouble).

    But there are other options. My favourite for laptops is the PCMCIA to
    Compact Flash card adapter, which can still be bought new from China
    (search "PCMCIA CF Adapter"). These appear to the computer as a second
    HDD controller, and the CF card works like a regular HDD. So you won't
    need any special drivers at all.

    There are also Zip drives, which are commonly found second hand. Many
    external ones were made which plugged into the parallel port, and
    drivers are still available online (somewhere).

    Then another possibility is a PCMCIA network card. Wired or Wireless,
    with 90s era adapters still compatible with todays interfaces. Find a second-hand adapter and you should be able to connect up to a local
    network (such as from your home router), then you can browse the web
    and run an FTP server on one of your other PCs to transfer files from.

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    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)