I have a old Dell PowerEdge Server that has data on it that I need to pull off and was wondering what is the best way to do it. The size of the data is probably around 100gig. Once the data is pulled off I need to read it on another computer. Should I try and search for a SCSI CDRW burner to use or should I try another approach? Unfortunately theres no network connection where the server is.
The OS is Windows NT. No USB or Firewire on the server.
100GB on recordable CD's! Yeeouch! I wouldn't burn CDs for 100GB of data. You're talking about around 150 CDs at 700MB / ea.
If the server isn't too old to have USB 2.0 ports, stick an external hard disk with a USB interface on it and copy the files that way. You might mention the operating system on the server computer. That would tell us if things like USB are available... (i.e. if it's Windows NT 4.0, for example, USB is a no-go).
It's likely the server has an Ethernet connection. Carry in your laptop and either a small Ethernet switch or a crossover cable and setup a little network between your laptop and the server. Just statically assign IP addresses to both machines and use the native file-and-print sharing tools on the machines to copy the files over. Of course, if you don't have 100GB of disk on your laptop, bring an external disk for the laptop, too. (Again, knowing about the operating system here would help...)
If it turns on, I would recommend booting it up, then attaching an external drive to it and pull the data off like that. A DVD burner for 100GB is not going to be a day for you.
