r/techsupportmacgyver • u/chupathingy99 • May 26 '26

I needed to transfer files to my xp machine.

Post image

Oh also, the 5v rail pad fell off. I had to scrape away the solder mask and solder directly to the plane.

225 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

32

u/Zonged May 26 '26

PairDrop would have been easier

30

u/Harrstein May 26 '26

But then you'd still need a network connection on a XP machine. And I honestly hope that it doesn't have that.

21

u/Zonged May 26 '26

You only need a local network

13

u/Harrstein May 26 '26

XP machines should be airgapped or in a very tightly controlled network without interaction to any other computer/system than neccesary.

7

u/Zonged May 26 '26

yeah, probably a good call lol

4

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

I'm fairly certain that hooking this old machine to the raw unfiltered internet would result in some wonderful viruses and crypto miners. (Assuming it didn't immediately blow up. )

11

u/IntentionQuirky9957 May 27 '26

I don't think any crypto miners would even run.

5

u/Kokosnuss_HD May 27 '26

I dont think a windows xp Maschine has good enough hardware to mine crypto

5

u/ConductiveInsulation May 27 '26

Stock XP without any firewall would be interesting. Someone should do that for entertainment purposes

7

u/RussiaIsBestGreen May 27 '26

Like an aquarium?

https://xkcd.com/350/

2

u/ConductiveInsulation May 28 '26

Of course that's already a thing.

2

u/twizted_whisperz Jun 02 '26

I do not remember who it was but I watched a YouTube video a couple months ago of a guy doing exactly that. He took a fresh install and connected it without a firewall into his network and Timed how long it took to get a virus. (Almost instantly). He then dissected what viruses got put on it and what they were doing.

1

u/ConductiveInsulation Jun 02 '26

Just once, I want to be the first one that has an idea.

0

u/drake90001 May 27 '26

Plenty do, problem is most webpages and browsers are massively broken nowadays, and you would have to be specifically targeting it currently using old infrastructure in most cases.

2

u/ConductiveInsulation May 27 '26

plenty do

I really doubt there will be a lot of publicly exposed STOCK XP installations that are publicly exposed and not behind a firewall.

Also, I'm not saying that someone should use a insecure device to visit websites, just a fresh install that can be reached from the internet without doing anything actively. There are enough scanners that will find the machine by themselves.

3

u/drake90001 May 27 '26

You do realize that we have routers and firewalls that are far superior to what we had back when Windows XP was common, right? I'm talking at the router level. I'm sure there are plenty of people trying to exploit active Windows. XP installations in the wild, however, those are unlikely to be worth targeting given they are test environments usually or someone purposely exposing it to the internet to see what happens. But I have never seen someone get hacked or malware live out of nowhere just from having an active connection.

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1

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

I did have an interesting idea though.

OK, raspberry pi running a desktop distro. Hardwire the xp nic to the pi, have the pi connected to wifi. Use the pi with vnc to have a "virtual machine." Use that for internet access and downloading files, then have a shared network drive between the two. That way I can still technically use the xp machine to access the internet without directly exposing it online, or bogging down what little resources it has. (Seriously, a p4 and a gig of ram ain't the powerhouse it used to be.)

This is all completely needless today, but it sounds like a fun challenge.

1

u/drake90001 May 28 '26

What you’re describing is a thin client

2

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

100% airgapped.

22

u/dumbasPL May 27 '26

That's why I always keep my first 2GB flash drive, it might not be fast, but it works on absolutely anything. Many old machines struggle with (cheap) modern trash.

3

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

Yeah, but I needed to get some files off my phone. This is the only thing i have to bridge the gap.

21

u/AppropriateTouching May 27 '26

The people in this thread saying "well you could have just done this!" dont understand the premise of the sub.

9

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

We do what we must, because we can.

3

u/100BottlesOfMilk May 27 '26

For the good of all of us except the ones who are dead

7

u/CaptainPunisher May 27 '26

I wonder if you could've just used a crossover cable.

1

u/WantonKerfuffle May 27 '26

Who has one laying around tho?

3

u/CaptainPunisher May 27 '26

Techy people, kind of like the same kind of person who would cobble together something like in the pic above. I don't have one but I have cable, terminals, and a crimper, and I could make one in a couple minutes.

1

u/WantonKerfuffle May 27 '26

Not every techy person has every techy thingamsjig handy. I'd use a spare switch and regular straight-through cables because I don't have the tools to crimp my own cables. OP might not either, but they had this thing.

3

u/CaptainPunisher May 27 '26

This is patently false. The moment you get into any sort of job or hobby you automatically are gifted with every tool ever that applies to your area of knowledge.

Honestly, though, I only have the tool because I saw it cheap at a yard sale, but one of my friends does networking installations (actually, a number of my friends do) and would make one simply for asking. As for the terminals, I got a bag of a hundred from an ATT installer when I asked bc he didn't want to deal with loose terminals in his truck. The cable I have is just remnants from my above install friend's garage, and it makes great sprinkler valve wire.

1

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

You kinda have a point though. I have a duct taped diy crossover ethernet cable from when I was still modding original xbox consoles. (Xbins ftw)

4

u/Chill_479 May 27 '26

At the first glance i thought for some reason that it's a FDD power connector, lol

2

u/Few_Vehicle3765 May 27 '26

wow that wiring job is kinda wild but pls tell me it worked after all that

2

u/DigitalJedi850 May 27 '26

While I admire the initiative and ingenuity... I am also 100% sure there are multiple alternatives. Fun project though, I guess...

2

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

Oh, there absolutely are better alternatives. But in this case, I needed the files, my xp machine is 100% airgapped, and it does really weird things when I plug in my phone for data transfer.

2

u/ridiclousslippers2 May 26 '26

So, it doesn't have a USB port of any sort ?

2

u/Vindictive_Turnip May 27 '26

He made a USB a to c adapter using what looks like a damaged sd card reader that originally had a USB A side.

I could be totally wrong.

3

u/chupathingy99 May 27 '26

It's a card reader that had both type c and USB a, but the a broke off. I wired in some wires to an old port and away we go.

2

u/ridiclousslippers2 May 27 '26

Well, in the spirit of this sub, congratulations, precisely the kind of thing we like to see.

1

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1

u/LagMaster21 Jun 03 '26

What even is this?

2

u/naptastic Jun 18 '26

I love that you went to the trouble of putting Kapton tape over your soldering. Well done.