Need help transferring data

from Windows 98 computer that is dying a slow, agonizing death, to my Windows XP.

I have this crossover cable, and I think I'm supposed to be able to use this to connect the computers directly together, so I can pick through the old computer's files from the new one.

But I don't know how the heck to do that!

The old computer is spyware infected and is VERY temperamental, and I have managed to save most of my important files to a disk, but what I have left is about 2000 email messages that I would like to be able to save. I can't get them to export out of Outlook Express, the computer keeps glitching up.

Is there a way to do this or am I SOL?

Thanks SO much!

Can you burn data from the old computer to a CD? If so, do that then scan the disk for spyware using either Spybot 1.3 or Adaware. Remove any and then transfer to your XP computer.

As far as saving those email messages, save them to a disk as well and then use the import function on the other computer's email program pointing it to the disk in the appropriate drive.

and each time it seemed to get about 1/2 done, and then had a Windows error and I had to re-boot. That is happening more and more often. This is the last thing I'm trying to save, and then I'm going to restore the hard drive.

This is worth a try, if/when you get truly pissed.

If both your XP and 98 machines use IDE disks, then just remove the disk with your mail data from your 98 box and slave it to your XP. You won't be booting from it, you won't be using the OS, you just want to pull the mail data (and any other goodies) off and reformat. Use it for extra storage on your new computer or put it back in the old one, reload the OS, and use it for gaming or a donation.

I bought one of those little portable drives. Mine holds 128 meg of data and just plugs into the usb port. I just copy stuff from one machine, unplug it and bring it over to the other machine, using Windows Explorer. It's a tiny little thing, fits on a key chain and only cost me $30. Great investment. Much faster than burning to a CD.

I actually looked at those when I bought this crossover cable, and for some reason decided to go with the cable instead. Now I wonder why??? :shrug:

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Cross your fingers for me...

Were you ever able to get the messages to export. I remember going through a similar situation when my POS was dying. The messages actually did export, I just couldn't find them. They eventually turned up and I was able to save them.

Here's another idea, very painful with 2000 messages, but guaranteed to work. The free accounts at Yahoo now have a huge storage capacity. You could export them to that account and then bring them back when time permits. The Yahoo mail can be accessed from any machine at any time, and you can set up your own folders to keep things straight. It doesn't sound like a particularly fun thing to do, but it should work.

are to Microsoft Outlook and I can't remember the other - something I don't have. So I tried to export to Outlook, and got an Outlook error message. I tried IMPORTING with Outlook, that wouldn't go either. Originally I had planned to just forward all of the messages to my new computer, but I can't get the damned computer to recognize its modem anymore. :argh: but now that I say that, I wonder if it will recognize the dialup modem... maybe I can go the slodem route... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... but you're right, too, that using the Yahoo account is a safer bet, so I don't end up forwarding a virus or other piece of sh*t to my new computer...

how I finally got mine exported. I know I finally did it, but it was 2 years ago. I'm on my laptop now and I don't even have OE set up here. I didn't want mine to export to Outlook either. I don't think there is any quick way to export them to Yahoo. You would have to individually forward each message (ugh). I just checked my Yahoo account and they give you 100 mb of storage, so that should hold you for a while.

Looking further, I just found this link that explains how to do it.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;270670

and here's another

http://www.pchell.com/support/backupoe.shtml

Good luck, and check in later and let me know if it worked.

It does recognize my slodem, so I just forwarded an entire mail folder that had about 100 messages in it to my Yahoo mail account. It seems to have arrived intact! So I'm going to keep at this to see how long this will hold out! YEAY!!!

And when I have a chance, I'm going to check out those links, too, because I don't want to end up in this position again.

THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!