Windows 98 Garage Sale Corner

[Multibooter]

In the U.S. a source of Win98-compatible software and hardware is not only ebay or amazon, but garage sales.

Garage sales are an American institution. They take place usually on Saturday mornings between 7 and 12, in some areas also on Sunday, and people who want to sell their junk put it in front of their garage and place signs at street corners with arrows to their garage. Variations of garage sales are neighborhood sales, where a real estate agent organizes around 30-50 garage sales close to each other.

When I have time, I enjoy going to these garage sales, asking people whether they have old computer stuff, software CDs or anything related to Windows 98. Very often people then bring out old computer stuff which they had not yet thought of selling.

I usually come back from these garage sales with a couple of interesting finds related to Windows 98. I will post here some of the finds, maybe others can give an idea on whether the find was just junk or a little treasure, or what to do with the find. Another good source of Win98-related stuff are swap meets, but garage sales are more enjoyable.

Example: About a year ago I bought at a garage sale for $15 a binder "Microsoft TechNet Plus CD Subscription", with about 130 CDs between Sept.1999 and July 2000. No idea what to do with it, it's been sitting in a box since then, but it may contain interesting stuff related to Win98.

Here some finds in the garage sales of the past 3 weeks:

May 7, 2011

- an unopened box of 25 Polaroid Blu-ray BD-R disks, from a sales rep who was selling his samples, $5, to experiment with Blu-ray under Win98

- an old Realistic (=Radio Shack) Bulk Tape Eraser, "Intermittent duty: 1 min on 20 min off", could that be used to destroy the content of old hard disks before disposal?, 25 cents

similar item: http://cgi.ebay.com/150605538740

- a CD with Plextor Manager Utilties 96 v1.73 and drivers, 20Jan1999, (DOS, Win9x). No idea whether it would be of any use for a Plextor PX-712A (has Mount Rainier DVD+MRW, CD-MRW), which I may eventually get, I currently just have a Plextor PX-716A, in a shoe box full of old CDs for altogether $1 (there was also MS Office Standard 2007 and some other newer stuff in there). Some info: http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=6104

May 14, 2011

- 5 CDs with CorelDraw Graphics Suite 11 (last version which runs under Win98), 50 cents http://www.amazon.com/CorelDRAW-Graphics-Suite-11-Upgrade/dp/B000069LH8/

- a SmartDisk FlashPath adapter for SmartMedia cards, which goes into the floppy drive, plus the driver CD,

probably just junk, because it's too slow and needs 2 small batteries, no DOS drivers, just Win9x drivers, 25 cents http://cgi.ebay.com/120675591196

May 21, 2011

- 2 CDs with MS OfficeXP Small Business (last version which runs under Win98), $1 http://cgi.ebay.com/200609633630 .

- 2 pieces of 512MB RAM, PC3200, Kingston 400MHz (it's much easier to install Win98 with just 512MB of RAM, and then, after the installation, make the required adjustments and replace the RAM with 2x1GB), $5 altogether, I paid too much http://cgi.ebay.com/170643248672

It would be interesting to know what good Win98-related junk others find.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Multibooter

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

Here some finds in the garage sales of the past 3 weeks:

You must live in the SF Bay area.

I'd never find stuff like that at garage sales in my area.

[Multibooter]

an old Realistic (=Radio Shack) Bulk Tape Eraser, "Intermittent duty: 1 min on 20 min off", could that be used to destroy the content of old hard disks before disposal?, 25 cents similar item: http://cgi.ebay.com/150605538740

I just wiped a 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy disk with it, it seems to work fine. The device is like an iron for pressing shirts, and I "ironed" a floppy for about 3 seconds on each side. Afterwards the floppy tools in my toolbox were not able to recover any data from the floppy:

- Anadisk v2.10, in a Win98SE DOS window, when trying to Scan the floppy, displayed "This diskette is either blank or unreadable":

- GRDuw v4.1.17 checked the disk media, then: "Unrecognized Media"

- DCF v5.3, in a full-screen DOS window under Win98SE, displayed: "Address mark not found"

- WinImage v8.10.8100 displayed: "Error. There is no floppy in the drive".

Wiping the floppy with the Bulk Tape Eraser did not destroy the floppy, the floppy could be formatted fine again with WinImage, GRDuw and Win98 Format (but it took about 1 min until Win98 Format actually started to format).

No idea how many floppies can be wiped in one batch, the device has the label "120V 5A".

[jaclaz]

120 V 5 A is quite a bit of power consumption, 600 VA= around 600 W.

If the circuits are efficient, it is likely to produce a flux of up to 2500 or 3000 gauss.

The 3+3 seconds IMHO can be "replaced" by 5 to 10 seconds on 1 side only.

Compare with data from the V94 or V92 models you find here (professional tools):

http://www.veritysystems.com/degaussers/tape-degaussing.asp

And with those of the hand held unit here:

http://www.degaussers.net/degausser.asp?id=1242

From "common sense" I would try with two or three floppy max, if the field works similar to the latter above, you have 2400 gauss on surface and 700 at 1/2" inch distance.

jaclaz

[loblo]

I've just installed a 400GB Maxtor hard drive I bought last year for £1 from a guy who sometimes comes to my local market to sell bits and bobs. It seems to be in perfect working condition.

Edited June 13, 2011 by loblo