However, I've given up on the numerous versions of Puppy and just use Ubuntu. Puppy Linux is an alternative for systems that are short of memory. Historically, we all used Knoppix, because this was the first Live Linux CD to be widely circulated. It doesn't much matter which version of Linux you use. Again, this would allow you to copy your files to an external hard drive. This should recognise your old hardware, including the USB ports. Otherwise, does your IBM laptop have a CD-Rom or DVD drive? If so, the simplest approach would be to boot from a Live Linux disc. However, you could use a boot manager to run Windows when you wanted to backup your files to an external USB hard drive. You could still run your relational databases on DOS. (certificate of authenticity) number, you could create a secondary partition and install Windows alongside the DOS on your primary partition. Assuming your laptop still has a Windows sticker with a COA

What I would have done is partition the hard drive so that the laptop could dual boot into either DOS or Microsoft Windows.

But if it means unscrewing lots of tiny screws, it's not something I'd want to do every week, and certainly not every day. You could, as you suggest, remove the hard drive and plug it into your desktop PC, possibly via a cheap external hard drive enclosure. Your laptop presumably started out running Windows XP, so there are probably several ways to get at your DOS files, depending on its drives and input/output ports. People usually have this problem when they are trying to rescue data files from an old computer, and old PCs often have hardware limitations. Or would it be simpler to plug the hard drive into my desktop and read the files that way? It would be much faster and more convenient to use the USB port but, of course, DOS does not support USB.

I use an IBM laptop running DOS for all my relational databases, and my backups are on dozens of floppies. I have spent several hours Googling the transfer of DOS files.

How to transfer from laptop to laptop