Parallel Support for external devices Windows XP etc.

[IanM]

Hi, I have been waiting patiently for many years to see if anyone can come up with a simple program that will enable Windows XP to recognize external legacy devices that rely on the parallel port. The odd thing is that I have an old Canon scanner that is recognized on the parallel port and works perfectly, suggesting that software to permit parallel support is possible.
I have looked at some drivers and source codes etc. on this site and elsewhere, but I am not a computer programmer and do not understand how to use them.
I am writing to ask if anyone may know of software that is available and that is reasonably easy to use. I am mainly wishing to use an external hard drive on my old computer. The computer is dual boot and the external HDD works fine in Win98, but WinXP fails to even recognize its existence. I have got plug & play set in boot-up.
Hope someone can help.
Ian

[Jan Axelson]

I think your best bet is to copy the data to a USB drive.

Jan

[IanM]

Hi Jan, That won't work, because it has no USB. 

It is amazing that so many years have gone by and nobody has found a reliable and easy way around the parallel port issues that arrived with XP. I realize there is no demand in the present day for parallel devices, but I am surprised that somebody has not found a way around Windows arrogant blocking of the parallel port... just for the fun of it and to prove that it can be done. 

Ian

[Jan Axelson]

It's not about the blocking of the port. It's about writing a driver, which is likely specific to that piece of hardware and thus has little demand.

Jan