BK>>  Of course, you can get adapters for USB to Serial or parallel.

 ML> the problem, in many cases, is getting one that goes in the
 ML> direction one needs... i can easily find one that connects
 ML> a serial device to a USB port (they come/came with many
 ML> mice) but i can hardly find one that allows me to connect a
 ML> USB device to a serial port (ie: USB mouse or external USB
 ML> modem)...

 BK>  My problem is getting bi-directional connections for parallel 
 BK> ports.

i'm sure :)

 BK>  How long till PCMCIA is history? I have a lot of cards for that. 
 BK> Hmmm...wonder if there is a USB to PCMCIA adapter. Hmmm...

i doubt it... PCMCIA is already pretty much dead AFAIK...

 BK>>  Many current laptops don't even have serial or parallel. Really
 BK>> don't much need them for a netbook.

 ML> agreed there... i had to really dig and be creative the
 ML> last time i had to rescue some data off of a XP laptop... i
 ML> was finally able to get it to boot off of a FreeDOS (IIRC)
 ML> floppy with NTFS drivers... then i had to really play
 ML> around to get a cable together so that i could connect it

 BK>  I have a USB to USB cable. Cost about $30.

it wouldn't help in the scenario i described... while the destination
machine had USB ports, there were no good working drivers for them... this
is why i still have a parallel 100M ZIP drive daisy chained with a parallel
scanner on that box... and the ZIP has to be first in the chain or it
doesn't work... evidently the parallel chain port in the scanner doesn't
support all the needed functionality that the ZIP needs... at least they
both have parallel chain ports ;)

 ML> between that laptop and one of my machines to zip (not
 ML> pkzip) and/or laplink the data across... getting laplink to
 ML> work was a real chore and as i recall, i ended up using a
 ML> very old serial transfer program called zip... i believe it
 ML> was out before laplink but i may be wrong on that... it
 ML> allowed me to transfer the data at 115200 with validation
 ML> to ensure that it was all correct on the receiving end...
 ML> as i recall, i did use my laplink cable as one of the
 ML> pieces of the total cable i had to come up with... it
 ML> wasn't pretty and it took some time but it worked and
 ML> that's what counted most ;)

 BK>  I also have USB to IDE adapters, and IDE 2.5 to 3.5 adapters. I 
 BK> usually try to salvage hard drives with Norton Ghost, the 2003 
 BK> version. Old, but it will copy even HDs that aren't even
 BK>  accessible to the OS under any circumstances. Ok, *SOMETIMES*. 

since they weren't going to pay be to crack open the box to fix the fan, i
wasn't going to crack it open to get at the drive, either ;)

however, i have also found the *nix dd to be much better at grabbing stuff
off of dead drives... especially when some tools expect to find valid
structures on them... dd doesn't care... it is a bit for bit copy of
everything that it can read... want to make an ISO image of a CD? screw all
that commercial (or any!) software other than dd... i've been using dd to
make ISOs for years... i simply start it at the very beginning and let it
pull until it runs out... the output being directed to foobar.iso...

 BK>  If they are completely failed nothing will read it. However, if 
 BK> just the boot sector is failed, the rest of the disk can be read 
 BK> bit by bit. Ghost will do it. Slow, but not unreasonable.

yeah... dd has definitely done right by me... much faster than ghost ever
wanted to be... just not as fancy and definitely more manual ;)

 BK>  Oh, I also have SATA to IDE or USB adapters.

we have exactly one SATA drive here ;)

 BK>  I have been doing this a lot and for a long time.

yep... i think we have about the same amount of time beating these beasts
into submission ;)

 BK>  I have a whole box just filled with adapters.

 BK>  I esp buy them when they go on sale cheap.

i used to but i got rid of most all of them some time back... too much
trouble and there's a time when one must say "that's enough" and
move on...

)\/(ark