I wanted to get some data off an old Windows 98 laptop of 1999 vintage. 4Gb hardrive, 1 usb port, 64 Mb of RAM. It worked fine in Windows 98, but back then anyt

I wanted to get some data off an old Windows 98 laptop of 1999 vintage. 4Gb hardrive, 1 usb port, 64 Mb of RAM. It worked fine in Windows 98, but back then anything USB required extra drivers and ... well, let's just say I didn't think re-learning Windows 98 at this stage in my life was a worthwhile investment. In the end, I used Damn Small Linux live-booted off a CD and copied the whole drive to a USB stick. Took hours due to only having USB 1 back then, but it worked. Your external drive case is a better solution, but the "old distro" approach is great for cheapskates :-)