Boot Older HDDs with Windows OS on New Computer

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dw85745

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Dec 23, 2014
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Current System: ASUS H97-Plus / Intel I5 - 4690K

I have various HDD with different Windows OSes. (e.g. Win95, Win98Se, WinXP)
I have the original Windows disks and authorization codes.
I need to boot from these older HDD in order to use several old programs.
For whatever reason the older programs will not execute under Window7-Pro (my current OS)
with OR without compatability mode.

=========================

Will connecting one of the HDD to the "current" system (will be using an IDE to SATA interface), and then installing (overwriting) the old OS onto the old HDD allow it to function on the current system?

If NOT, an explanation of why NOT would be appreciated.
Also any alternatives -- if any -- I have?
.
 
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Hlsgsz
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Feb 29, 2016
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You should create images from teh drives and use them in virtual machines. That is teh proper course in such cases.
Check out VMware.
 
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dw85745

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Thanks for all responses:

kanewolf:

It might allow the OS to function, but the old programs may not be recognized since when you install windows you wipe out the registry which has the knowledge of the old program.
Click to expand...

Was not aware of this. Would of thought would over-write "JUST" the OS keys in the registry.

Hlsgsz:

You should create images from teh drives and use them in virtual machines.
Click to expand...

Any way I can create a VM (assume VM is on my current HD) and then run the programs that are on the old drives?



USAFRet

Possibly there is a newer version or other workaround
Click to expand...

Wish there was never versions. Most out of business or bought up.
Have tried to see if I could get one working using ProcessMonitor (a newbie to it). No luck so far.
The VM seems the easiest soluiton, provided I can execute directly using the old drives from the VM.
 
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dw85745

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Hlsgsz:

Trying NOT to create images if at all possible. Reasons are:
1) Seems redundant to have to make an image of a drive that already exists.
2) The new drive may NOT be large enough to handle the image.
3) Programs used infrequently, just needed from time to time so why clutter up a drive.

As an aside, the imability to carry forward old programs is a good reason NOT to store things in the registry.
To bad most companies follow MS direction and go with using the registry for variable storage.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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The Registry is in response to the way applications used to be set up. Each in its own little world, nothing shared.

Fonts. There is one central repository for this. All applications can use them, instead of each having its own 'font folder'.
Where is info held? In the Registry.
User accounts. Again, this info is held in the Registry.

When you close an application, then reopen it...how does it know to open it in the same location and size it was when you closed it? Lines in the Registry.

And thousands of other bits of info about the system.
The Reg is being written to and read from thousands of times per minute.

Install a new OS? The new Registry knows nothing about those old applications.
Some may work, a lot will not work.
And if those applications are in the same partition or drive as the OS, they would be wiped out anyway.

As recommended above, I recommend trying to turn those old drives into VM's.
Use with VMWare or VirtualBox.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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1) you can boot a VM in VMWare directly from a physycal drive. This provides alayer of hardware abstraction so that the old OSs do no need to recognize the newer hardware and/or have drivers for it. Basically this keeps you from messing up the old windows installs.
2) such images can be made to be very compressed(1:6 or more). That coupled with the fact that a win 98 install is what? 300MB? may make for the images to be more practical solution. Atleast you could put them all on one of the extra drives and just add that to teh PC when needed. Obviously, you should clean the old installs so as to have only the programs in question. All other stuff, you run from the main, modern os.
3) see above
 
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dw85745

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USAFRet.

Thanks for input. Familiar with the registry and its uses. Just ranting at M$. For the most part M$ started out "fairly" friendly to the programmer and end user but has IMO gotten more and more about M$ Profits. For example, I see this move to Cloud computing coming full circle back to the old mainframe days. Next thing you know we will have to send everything to M$ to get it run and wait for output. FWIW, just like the registry there are other issues too, such as APIs (16 --> 32 -- 64 now bit), ASCII versus UNICODE, etc. However IMO easily resolved to run on future systems if programmers planned ahead.

Hlsgsz:
Haven't perused your VM links yet, only quick review. Hopefully they will detail "How To" per last post.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Although I have done those things in the past, It's been a while and i'm not familiar with any interface changes in that software, so you would better make a new thread if you need "how-to" help.
But it should be pretty straightforward, wizard-style and a couple of setting to look for such as setting compression to "high" if you decide to go the disc image VM route. i still stand by my recommendation that you do it that way for convenience and reliability(those old drives can die on you at any time ;) ).
 
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dw85745

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Dec 23, 2014
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Thanks ALL for assist and your time.
Hlsgsz:
Will pursue your VM solution and see how much involved.
You make a valid point re: old drives dying.
However same issue holds true for DVD media or worse yet DVD themselves being deprecated and then unable to run the media.
The old floppies (both 5 1/4 and 3 1/2) are good example as well as the IDE interface for HDD.

 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Feb 29, 2016
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I didn't say anything about DVDs. VMs need to be writeable so you can't run them off of DVDs. You can, and should, however, use the to back teh images up.
 
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Jeffrey_42

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