Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

First of all let me give you some info on what trying to do, I have a toshiba laptop with vista and I just got another computer that has xp on it, I would like to turn the xp into a slave. (storage) | (Although that looks less and less possible by the minute!!!) I do not want to uninstall the os on the xp because it is a windows xp professional copy. So if anyone has any sugesstions let me know, I have a bridge cable, (no working driver) the one I downloaded did not work, it crashed my computer. If anyone knows how to do this though usb-usb without a driver and using no internet, xp has none, please help me! I am open to anything, command line or whatever. I know I'm asking a lot, so thanks in advance if anyone can help!

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Dani AI

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Short summary and what actually fixed it: ’ final note (plugging the cable into a different USB port) is the common, correct fix for the PL‑2301 style USB–USB bridge: those cables contain a small controller chip and require a proper driver to create the host-to-host link — they are not the same as a plain A‑to‑A cable. If you ever see weird behavior or a driver crash, treat the cable like a device with its own driver package. (drivers.softpedia.com)

Why a different port helps: Windows creates a device instance when a USB device is enumerated. If a driver install or enumeration failed on one port, moving the cable to another port forces Windows to re-enumerate and try a clean install (you'll effectively get a new device instance). That explains why an apparently “working” driver suddenly starts working after switching ports. (learn.microsoft.com)

A short, practical checklist (keeps things quick and safe):

  • Show hidden/ghost devices in Device Manager (set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1) and remove any old PL‑2301/bridge entries before reinstalling. (learn.microsoft.com)
  • Uninstall the PL‑2301 driver, unplug, reboot, then install the correct driver package (PL‑2301 v1.6.4.2 is the known release for that chipset) and plug the cable into a different USB port. Run installers as Administrator; use Safe Mode or System Restore if a driver install previously crashed the system. (drivers.softpedia.com)
  • If the cable shows up as a network adapter (many transfer cables do), assign simple static IPs on both machines and use normal file sharing or Windows Easy Transfer to copy files. If the cable keeps failing, test it on another PC to rule out a bad cable. (rapidonline.com)

If convenience matters more than tinkering: modern USB‑3 transfer cables and vendors (they include tested drivers/software) cost less than time spent debugging; alternatively remove the XP drive and use a USB‑SATA adapter for direct file copy. For readers following and , those network/file‑share approaches remain valid but the PL‑2301 route needs the driver/port steps above. (plugable.com)

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Member Avatar for freshfitz

Are the 2 on the same network, just setup a network share on the xp machine and use it as the storage device

Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

Are the 2 on the same network, just setup a network share on the xp machine and use it as the storage device

No, sorry, they are not on a network, the xp does not have internet, I have a usb-usb (without the driver) and I am wondering if there is anyone that have a way to use that to connect them. I was thinking maybe a some sort of command file to tell it to connect via usb.

Member Avatar for stvrich

I was looking at this topic (if only quickly) and looks like a PLAIN USB CABLE ---will not work---. It looks like you need a special cable. Here's yet another add for a proprietary cable to do what you are asking.

Looks like that's your answer, for USB, anyway.

But If you can buy a CROSSOVER cable. What that does is allow you to connect 2 ethernet ports directly (IF you can get them both setup for a peer to peer style network.)

Other than THAT...
in the "old days" they had "direct cable" a feature using the parallel port to interconnect PC's but they dropped that in Vista.

Here,
I just found a site that seems to confirm you need the proprietary cables for a USB interconnect. Vista calls it "Windows Easy Transfer".

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

Happy Wednesday
Steve

Member Avatar for stvrich

Looks like that cable is going to cost about 50 dollars (retail).
I'd suggest just buying a crossover cable, or using a cheap hub or switch (from a friend if YOU don't have one) and just setting up a peer to peer network and sharing files. I myself wish I could spend more time to actually concentrate on walking you thru some stuff, or otherwise directly helping, but I actually can not stay with this topic any longer (for now/today), but I'll check back later. ...You can find guides and clues online for setting up a network. Just keep asking questions along these lines in search engines. Hope some of this helps guide you along....havagoodone!

Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

sorry I did mean to say crossover... my bad.

Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

Looks like that cable is going to cost about 50 dollars (retail).
I'd suggest just buying a crossover cable, or using a cheap hub or switch (from a friend if YOU don't have one) and just setting up a peer to peer network and sharing files. I myself wish I could spend more time to actually concentrate on walking you thru some stuff, or otherwise directly helping, but I actually can not stay with this topic any longer (for now/today), but I'll check back later. ...You can find guides and clues online for setting up a network. Just keep asking questions along these lines in search engines. Hope some of this helps guide you along....havagoodone!

I am working with a crossover but, no driver for it sorry I should have been more specific, I just need to know how to work a crossover cable without a driver.

Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

PL-2301 USB to USB Bridge Controller (EOL) is the exact cable model, it seems I'm not the only one with this problem, I found a driver but it still does not work. The driver is attached in a zip file if anyone wants to see it. Also please note, The cable is a usb-usb bridge cable, I did not have the driver initially and now I do and it still does not work, If anyone can help me with this pleas let me know, I am getting no errors form windows whatsoever, it should be working to the best of my knowledge. I was not too specific when I first described the problem sorry....

_IO_Cable_PL-2301_Drivers_-_Generic_Windows_wd_pl2301_v1642.zip (1299.3 KB)
Member Avatar for maddogsprofiles

Never mind.... I made a stupid mistake, I only tried one of the ports, I never switched the place it was plugged into, I plugged in a different port on my vista and it works now.

Member Avatar for stvrich

excellent

Member Avatar for stvrich

You got it working? Excellent!

Member Avatar for uvarovo

Please how did you make it work on Vista? Withi this driver: pl2301_v1642?

Never mind.... I made a stupid mistake, I only tried one of the ports, I never switched the place it was plugged into, I plugged in a different port on my vista and it works now.

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