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General discussion

Want to transfer HD of Old PC with Win95 to 1 w/Win2K

Feb 3, 2005 1:11PM PST

How exactly can I do this. Reason is, my father has CAD and other software installed on the old PC and he wants to be able to still use it on the new one. Will we have to set up a dual boot system? will that even work without old Win95 disks? Will it be possible to plug in Old 95 HD as slave and simply switch back and forth?

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I have asked the same question
Feb 3, 2005 7:12PM PST

My parents stopped learning anything new with Windows 98. I thought of putting the old hard drive into the new computer and having a dual boot. Unfortunately, I never found any good instructions how to make it work. There is a lot of information how to have a dual boot on a single hard drive but, not much on two hard drives with different operating systems in the same machine. The solution, we kept the old computer to run the one program that needed DOS.

Without the Windows 95 CD and product key number, you won't be able to reinstall the operating system. You might be able to find a copy on E-Bay. Will the program work with Windows 98? That might be easier to find.

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There is every reason to believe
Feb 3, 2005 7:56PM PST

that if you hook that harddrive up as a slave on the same cable as the W2K harddrive that the programs running and installed already on the W95 HDD will still work because it has it's own Windows directory still intact so the program will be able to still find any system files it needs to run just fine...without a dual boot. All you should have to do is right drag a CAD program shortcut from the D drive (which will be the W95 drive) in windows Explorer of W2K from the W95 Windows\Start Menu\Programs list that will still be there...and when you get it to the desktop, let go of the mouse and choose COPY HERE.

Then click it to see if it works (it should).

W2K is NTFS whereas W95 is FAT16 or FAT32 and as such if you use the W95 as the Master instead of W2K on the cable, W95 will never see the W2K harddrive, but W2K should have no problem seeing the W95 drive and all of its folders and files in Windows Explorer.

There is also a suspicion on my part that the CAD program is a DOS program and may not have written any of its files to the W95 system folders and would have all of its needed/required files to run located inside its own folder structure under the W95 Program Files\CAD (or whatever the company name is) or just a separate folder under the D drive. If that's the case, you might try using the installation disks that he has for CAD and see if it can be installed at the W2K desktop and actually work.

If it does, then let it install to the default location that it wants to install to, open up some of those folders in the W2K Windows Explorer and see where the database files are located (they will be empty on the W2K machine). Once you can locate the database files on that drive, you can right drag the ones he has on the W95 drive from that same location to the W2K location, let it go, and choose COPY HERE (never, never, never, choose MOVE in case it doesn't work). You will get a window that asks if you want to overwrite the existing file....say yes, since the existing one that just got installed is empty and you want to replace it with a working database.

Once you have COPIED the database files he wants to keep.....then you an use the W2K CAD install icon from the Start\Programs list to start up the program and see if his database is working. If it is, and he has everything working properly on the W2K side of things, you can physically remove the W95 harddrive from the slave position on the cable, and know that you have pulled off a wonderful copy trick.

If the CAD program won't install on the W2K system at all, it should still work on the W95 drive....and if it does, and if the system has a burner program and a DVD burner installed on the W2K, burn the whole W95 harddrive to a dvd cd as DATA....this should work if the W95 harddrive is less than 4GB in size that's used up space. Otherwise, burn the whole CAD folder instead and hang on the installation disks for the CAD program. This will salvage his database files in a safe place in case that old W95 harddrive dies off one day. Replace the drive, install W95 on it again, install CAD again, and then copy the CAD folder or just the database file that's on the cd back to the new harddrive to the same location and overwrite the empty one again.

This all sounds confusing as all get out, but once you get the drive hooked up as a slave, and open up the D drive, you have options now. Just remember you want to right mouse drag and COPY HERE.......never MOVE. That will always give you a way to safely find out if things work and not lose the data in the process. If necessary, get paper and pencil and make an outline of steps you want to try for the options you might have. Go with the one that works and X out the ones that don't, and logic will steer you since most of what you will be doing is in the Windows Explorer window which is already familiar ground.

I've played around with this kind of stuff many times over the years, and most times, have been successful...just take your time, and you should be fine.

TONI

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One more thing of note
Feb 6, 2005 1:47AM PST

besides Toni's very comprehensive analysis of potential problems (and possible solutions)...You can certainly put the Win 95 HD into a new PC. One thing that will happen is that it will not recognize it's new hardware environment. You will need to find and supply drivers for everything including the motherboard. I remember doing this with Win98 and believe Win95 should be similar. There is a registry section called the "ENUM" which contains the plug and play hardware profile. I believe it was somewhere under Hkey/Local Machine/..../Enum. I would find it best to delete this in the registry first and then move a disk. It's not totally necessary but I found it to simplify things. A new ENUM will be created. I would not attempt the move until all compatible hardware drivers were in place. I will be facing a similar task soon. My father has a Win98 machine and needs to move to XP. Some of his programs may not work and some will need new versions. To minimize the trauma to him, I will be putting the old HD into a new rig and teaching him how to switch between drives until he's fully on XP. I suspect the "weaning" process to be more difficult than moving the drive. Good luck to you.