Can't make backup for old phone on computer

Question

Greetings.
I am in a bit of a pickle.  For some reason, the last iCloud backup I have for my now mostly nonfunctional phone was on 7/8/14.  My itunes back up was even earlier.
My 3GS decided to start rebooting itself over and over again without letting me access anything whatsoever.
I needed a new phone, so I decided to upgrade to a 4S at minimal cost.
Considering the model was old, they let me keep the old phone.
The problem is that I now have data frozen in time on my old phone, conversations and phone records that I would like to keep for posterity from 7/8 until the present day.
I loaded the last backup onto my new phone.
However, my old phone will still be recognized by itunes, with all of its data still intact.  However, when I try to make a backup to iCloud, nothing works.  It won't even back it up to my computer on itunes.
Is there anyway to retroactively backup my phone so that I may load this content, in combination with my recent content onto my recent 4S content onto my new phone?  Have an appointment at the apple store coming up, but I'd like feedback nonetheless.
Thank you

Answer 1

Use Ctrl-b to turn on the menu bar (or press Alt to make it open temporarily)
File > Devices > Transfer purchases from "<Device>".
tt2