Disaster recovery for computer with windws 95
We have an old computer with windows 95 which has a custom application that sends and recieves data (design codes) to a mechanical machine. We have made a clone of hard drive for disaster recovery purposes. We would like a swapable computer also incase the motherboard components go out on the inital computer. I have tried to configure the cloned hard drive into another computer but getting the motherboard drivers for components is difficult. The PCI bridge is not getting installed correctly. Does any one know of an easier method to get the cloned hard drive to work on another computer. I have also tried converting an image of the hard drive into vmware with no luck. We are planning to replace the software eventually but in the mean time would like to have this computer backup for disaster recovery working.
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timhl
If the application doesn't require any special hardware, then the application will probably work with Windows 98 too. Try installing the clone disk as a 2nd disk into a Windows 98 computer - there are plenty of these still around. You may have to set a jumper on the drive to make it operate in slave mode. Also, this setup would change the drive letters, however, so you may run into problems if the application is configured to reference C:. If so, try dragging the application files over to the C: drive and see if it runs.
ASKER
For the VMware process I connected the cloned Win95 hard drive as a primary slave then created an image of it. The primary master which has WinXp is used to run the vmware converter. The Win95 OS is NOT listed as a compatiable OS for VMware converter so I didnt continue.
Is there a guide for VMware converter for Win95 OS.
Is there a guide for VMware converter for Win95 OS.
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ASKER
I want to provide an update on this question:
I have found an old computer similar to the one in production. I have been able to find the chipset drivers and so far the nic card and all drivers are working so this computer would serve as a physical backup swap. I am going to put it into production this week and test it out further.
However I am still going to look into the vmware suggestions because that is my preferred option.
timhl: I do not have a computer with windows 98 available yet.
dnilson : If I upgrade to win98se wouldn't that erase or break the custom program I am trying to conserve.
I have found an old computer similar to the one in production. I have been able to find the chipset drivers and so far the nic card and all drivers are working so this computer would serve as a physical backup swap. I am going to put it into production this week and test it out further.
However I am still going to look into the vmware suggestions because that is my preferred option.
timhl: I do not have a computer with windows 98 available yet.
dnilson : If I upgrade to win98se wouldn't that erase or break the custom program I am trying to conserve.
No, the win98 upgrade probably wouldnt break the program, but there is no way to tell without doing it on the copy of the disk.
Think of Win98 as Win95 SP9 , architechturally they are quite similar inside, with Win98, andwin98SE in particular having better support for old apps, and is better supported by the virtualization platforms
Think of Win98 as Win95 SP9 , architechturally they are quite similar inside, with Win98, andwin98SE in particular having better support for old apps, and is better supported by the virtualization platforms
ASKER
thanks for all your help
my physicall computer backup is working so I will use that for now but the advice given about virtualization helped for other issues.
my physicall computer backup is working so I will use that for now but the advice given about virtualization helped for other issues.