Recovering Win3.1 Data

[Mouse]

>> If the original machine boots, there are many possibilities.  I once
>> did a linkup with a system with NO serial or parallel ports ([...])
>> by bit banging an LED on the console and picking the bits up with a
>> phototransistor connected to some parallel port pins.
> I hate to think how long it would take to transfer a 400MB drive using that $

Don't forget, with a technique like that there is no need to limit it
to (eg) serial-port speeds; the limitations will be the software on
each end, the response time of the LED, and the response time of the
phototransistor; these might well permit megabit-plus rates.

420MB at one megabit, unrealistically assuming no framing or error
loss (ECC, retransmit, whatever), is under an hour.  Cut the speed to
100Kb and double the data for framing and error loss, and my
calculation says 19.57+ hours, still less than a day.

I don't know about the original poster, but I wouldn't consider that
out of the question at all.

/~\ The ASCII				  Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML		mouse at rodents-montreal.org
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B