Mark Miwurdz

Dear All

I've just inherited an Iomega Ditto external drive which will only work under Windows 3.1, 95 or 98 and I have some old Travan TR-3 tapes I'd like to get some data off.

Is is possible to load an older version of Windows (95) onto a machine running XP and run it seperately so I can install the tape drive and get the old data I need?

Or am I talking out of my @rse and is there a much easier way of doing it?

Cheers
Kav

sti555

yep, you need to get hold of VMware, look on kazza, it will basically allow you to boot another OS from within XP, runs as a Virtual Machine hence VMware!

So install vmware, create a partition on your HDD, install a legacy OS, 3.1/95 etc, then get your data of your travan tape, dead easy!.

The latest version of VMware which I use will enable you to drag & drop files from the virtual machines to your actual machine, even between different File Systems, FAT16/FAT32/NTFS etc..

All in all a handy bit of kit will means you can still use your old hardware & programs. You can run multiple machines too, handy for testing different OS on one box at the same time, or of you wanna play old dos4/gw based games like me that won't run in 2K/XP.

email me if you need help "sourcing" the software

Cheers

Tim

Mark Miwurdz

Thanks Tim

Is there a particular version I need to look out for and is it freeware or shareware?

Cheers
Kav

Roland_STI

Personally I think thats an extreme measure to take just to get some data of a drive. Especially considering Tape backups were primarily designed for large business use and therefore the NT kernel.

Windows XP can emulate w95 and 98 for running programs, and im pretty sure they can for certain drivers too. Few things to check before you delve into VM's, KaZaa etc are whether there is documentation on other people in your situation. Search Google thoroughly.

Mark Miwurdz

Thanks mate

A chap at work mentioned something about a compatibility wizard in XP which allows you select the program you're trying to run and then gives you options of the appropriate O/S. I'll give it a bash tonight........

Cheers
Kav

sti555

Roland/Mark,

sorry read the original post in a hurry, perhaps a little bit more work than required, but hey

I would def have it on your system though as per my previous post..

download VMware Workstation here

comes with 30 day eval.


The program compatability wizard in XP is pretty good but, I think you will find your problems are down to old/incompatabile hardware device drivers , but worth a go
As always mail me if you need any help/software etc

Mark Miwurdz

Hi Tim

I've just taken a look at the help section in XP about installing another O/S on the same disc as XP. It sounds like you have to format the bit of the disc that you're going to put 95 on as FAT and then install XP after that. That sounds way too difficult for a dummy like me. If I go down the VMware route, is it going to be less tortuous (and easy)?

Cheers
Kav

Buckrogers

Dont bother with VM s/w just yet!

Look here first:
http://list.driverguide.com/list/FOR...513/index.html

Or start from the begining here:
http://www.driverguide.com

Buck

Mark Miwurdz

Hi Buck

I got all excited for a moment. I went to the first URL you gave me and against the device I was looking for (Ditto Max), it showed an XP driver icon. Sadly, when I went to the page, the only driver there is for DOS and Windows 95.

I should have explained that I got this thing brand new and unopened (it's probably 4 years old now) with all the drivers. DO you think my best bet is to install 95/98 on a different partition on the disc or find someone who's still running 98 on a machine somewhere?

Cheers
Kav

lightning101

Why not use the DOS driver and boot up with a bootable dos disk including the drivers ?

Buckrogers

The above is a good idea! Although when in DOS you may have trouble writing info to a NTFS drive (not sure).

Failing that, like you say, find a pc with win98 on install get the data is another quick solution.

Sorry about the link, I have used driverguide before in the search for video drivers for win2k, which I found there.

Buck

lightning101

Right - do what i said, then use norton ghost to make a cd image - go into XP then extract the image to data using ghost in XP.