[NTLUG:Discuss] slightly OT - external USB hard drive

[Robert Citek]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Fred James <fredjame at fredjame.cnc.net> wrote:
> All
> (pardon the slightly OT)
> The machine in question is currently running Windows 98 SE
> The problem is to save the user content and convert the machine to Linux
> (only)

What are the specs on the machine: CPU, RAM, HDD size?

> The OT part is ...
>    (a) best way to get the data from the W98SE box? - neither my
> external USB hard drive or my USB flash memory will work on that OS

Can it boot from a CD, e.g. Knoppix?  If so, boot Knoppix, attach USB
drive, and copy data.  If the machine has low RAM, you can boot
Knoppix without the GUI using 'boot> knoppix 2'

>    (b) the box has been crashing/freezing a lot, in what appears to be
> your basic "memory leak" problem - no errors messages presented - is
> there a good/safe way to test/inspect the memory?
>    (b.1) I hate to do all the work to find the Linux suffered on the
> machine as well, just because the memory was flaky.

Could be bad capacitors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Regards,
- Robert