Idea: A USB Hard Drive of a 16bit MS ME OS booting from a 32BIT Vista - would it work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jon
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J

Jon

Old Pgms - I have expensive application software that works on Win 3.1, Win
98, Win ME (all 16bit I think) on a 2000-era Gateway desktop computer. I
have the MS ME OS on a FAT32 hard drive there. XP Business Office suite
works fine on this MS ME. This desktop is beginning to crater; one of the 2
hard drives already has bad sectors. The monitor which was already
originally a refurb is about 8-9 years old.

New Vista - I also have a 32bit Vista Ultimate on a new 17" 1.4Ghz notebook.
My MS Vista Bios says I can boot from either a CDROM/DVD, or a main hard
drive, or a USB harddrive, or boot to a LAN. I've put some Office 97
programs on this Vista and a few other old programs.: all work.

USB boot - What I'm thinking of is to take out my still-working C harddrive
Fat32 drive from the 16bit MS ME desktop and attach a USB connection to it,
then boot from it at my 32bit Vista machine.

This old C drive is bulging with 40-60 Gb's of good software that is
probably not transferable directly to Vista, and most don't have new drivers
for Vista. (Several programs use advanced graduate school mathematics to
decompose a long data stream into multiple wave components, etc.) Ideally I
would gain a nice new wide monitor screen and a much faster speed without
the years of trauma trying to install zillions of old specialized programs
on Vista who would balk at each one. If this MS ME boot idea would work,
naturally it would need drivers to find the notebook monitor and keyboard
and mouse, USB's, etc, but I assume that could be done easily. Offhand I'd
think this drive and programs wouldn't know anything has changed except it
now just runs faster.

In re-reading the MS Vista help file on dual boots, they suggest a MS 2000
could work as a duel boot on the same harddrive as MS Vista. And MS 2000 is
a son of MS ME I think: they must be closely alike, and to their grandson
XP. What I don' t know is how would the 16bit MS ME OS 2000-era and
application software on a Fat32 drive react to a roaring 32bit 1.4Ghz Vista
CPU, 2007-era designed for 32bit NTFS format. I'd think the effect would be
the same as if I just put a fast 1.4Ghz CPU in my old MS ME desktop. Any
experience, horror stories , warnings, successe stories or suggestions
,anyone?
Thanks, Jon.
 
Jon

A couple of items.

1. Windows does not support booting from a USB drive.
2. Windows ME is not comparable to Windows 2000. Windows ME was the last of
the Windows 9x, DOS based product line. The Windows XP platform and Vista
are based on the Windows NT/2000 product line (NT Kernel).

If you want to dual boot Vista and Windows ME, you will need to use a third
party boot/partition manager that supports hiding the 2 boot partitions from
each other.

An even better idea would be to install the free Virtual PC 2007 from
Microsoft on the Vista drive and install Windows ME as a virtual machine.
This way you could run ME from the same desktop and just click to switch
between each version.
 
You can't move an operating system from one machine to another just by
moving the hard disk drive (quite apart from the problem of getting it to
boot from USB). All the drivers need to be updated for the new hardware,
and it's very unlikely that you would find suitable ME drivers for the
laptop, even if you reinstalled the OS or replaced drivers as part of the
migration process. ME is very different than Vista/XP/200 and you cannot use
any of the drivers provided with the laptop in the ME installation. Laptop
hardware tends to be very specific and it's unlikely that generic drivers
will work for anything other than the most basic devices.

You can easily replace the hard drives in the desktop, and if you're happy
with a CRT monitor then you can replace that very cheaply, and keep that old
machine going. You can simplify data transfers by networking the two
machines.

It is worth trying to re-install some of that old software onto the laptop -
you might be surprised at how much is actually compatible, especially if you
select your compatibility options carefully. Number crunching is not
particularly OS-specific. Or, as Ronnie suggests, try installing ME as a
Virtual PC. This option has a performance penalty, however, and you might
not get the speed improvements you are hoping for.
 
I sent 2 different thank you's for the replies to my Q but somhow they
didn't get posted.
Thanks a bunch guys.
Jon
 
PGMS?

MS ME?

Vista CPU?

XP Business?

beginning to crater?

MS Vista Bios?

I don't know what you're trying to do here. Tell us a story or as a
question. It's like you make up your own terms as you go along though. Like
you're telling a story in your own crazy language.
 
Jon said:
Old Pgms - I have expensive application software that works on Win 3.1,
Win 98, Win ME (all 16bit I think) on a 2000-era Gateway desktop computer.
I have the MS ME OS on a FAT32 hard drive there. XP Business Office suite
works fine on this MS ME. This desktop is beginning to crater; one of the
2 hard drives already has bad sectors. The monitor which was already
originally a refurb is about 8-9 years old.

New Vista - I also have a 32bit Vista Ultimate on a new 17" 1.4Ghz
notebook. My MS Vista Bios says I can boot from either a CDROM/DVD, or a
main hard drive, or a USB harddrive, or boot to a LAN. I've put some
Office 97 programs on this Vista and a few other old programs.: all work.

USB boot - What I'm thinking of is to take out my still-working C
harddrive Fat32 drive from the 16bit MS ME desktop and attach a USB
connection to it, then boot from it at my 32bit Vista machine.

This old C drive is bulging with 40-60 Gb's of good software that is
probably not transferable directly to Vista, and most don't have new
drivers for Vista. (Several programs use advanced graduate school
mathematics to decompose a long data stream into multiple wave components,
etc.) Ideally I would gain a nice new wide monitor screen and a much
faster speed without the years of trauma trying to install zillions of old
specialized programs on Vista who would balk at each one. If this MS ME
boot idea would work, naturally it would need drivers to find the notebook
monitor and keyboard and mouse, USB's, etc, but I assume that could be
done easily. Offhand I'd think this drive and programs wouldn't know
anything has changed except it now just runs faster.

In re-reading the MS Vista help file on dual boots, they suggest a MS 2000
could work as a duel boot on the same harddrive as MS Vista. And MS 2000
is a son of MS ME I think: they must be closely alike, and to their
grandson XP. What I don' t know is how would the 16bit MS ME OS 2000-era
and application software on a Fat32 drive react to a roaring 32bit 1.4Ghz
Vista CPU, 2007-era designed for 32bit NTFS format. I'd think the effect
would be the same as if I just put a fast 1.4Ghz CPU in my old MS ME
desktop. Any experience, horror stories , warnings, successe stories or
suggestions ,anyone?
Thanks, Jon.
Click to expand...

As clarification, 2 old programs on my MS ME desktop computer had required
that I make changes in the system.ini file while they are being installed
years ago. Once this is done they work great on MS ME. That's why I can't
just use the desktop as an appendege to my Vista computer because the Vista
booting doesn't do the right tricks to make these programs work. I dimly
recall that someone told me this system.ini trick would not work on a NT OS,
especially MS Win 3.1 NS. On my Vista notebook, changing the system.ini file
has been a problem, but also some of the registry entries don't get written
during the program installation process- and apparently the reuired lines
are copied into my my personal "documents" folder. To get these old programs
to work I have to boot from a MS ME OS.

* One option is to fix up my 6 year old MS ME and use it when I want to run
either of these two programs. To that end, I ordered a new WD harddrive to
replace my C & D drives. However, I would now have to upkeep two different
computers all the time.

* Another possibility is to obtain a MS XP v2002 OS to upgrade the MS ME to
XP OS on my desktop FAT32 C drive, (assuming it won't mess with my programs
or with the system.ini file) then somehow get this same XP OS (on the old
desktop) over to my Vista notebook as some sort of a multiboot.(I assume XP
2002 would have drivers for the notebook monitor and keyboard.) Apparently
the XP 2003 OS will not work or upgrade at all on a MS ME computer. When I
see written that XP and Vista can be used in multiboots, I can't tell which
XP version (2002, 2003, 2007?) they are talking about. Another issue is if I
install XP 2002 on my desktop, Microsoft might want me to pay money to
reinstall it on my Vista notebook, which would be a 2nd machine.

* Another possibility is to try out the Vistual PC 2007 which supposedly
allows Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, etc. to be run along with Vista. I've
downloaded the free program and will work on the courage to tenative try it
maybe.

I have health problems and don't have spans of time to do a lot of computer
testing work. If anyone sees me heading for a disaster here, please advise.
Jon.
 
Jon

< * Another possibility is to try out the Vistual PC 2007 which supposedly
< allows Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, etc. to be run along with Vista. I've
< downloaded the free program and will work on the courage to tenative try
it
< maybe.

This is the option I would recommend. There is a news group that is
dedicated to Virtual PC. I would recommend you go there and ask the experts
the location for tutorials on setting this up. Here is a link to that group.

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.virtualpc
 
Thanks Ronnie. You've been a major help of mercy in my situation here. I
never heard of Virtual PC til you mentioned it earlier. I'll follow your
recommendation and look into the Virtual PC newsgroup.
Jon.
 
Jon said:
As clarification, 2 old programs on my MS ME desktop computer had required
that I make changes in the system.ini file while they are being installed
years ago. Once this is done they work great on MS ME. That's why I can't
just use the desktop as an appendege to my Vista computer because the
Vista booting doesn't do the right tricks to make these programs work. I
dimly recall that someone told me this system.ini trick would not work on
a NT OS, especially MS Win 3.1 NS. On my Vista notebook, changing the
system.ini file has been a problem, but also some of the registry entries
don't get written during the program installation process- and apparently
the reuired lines are copied into my my personal "documents" folder. To
get these old programs to work I have to boot from a MS ME OS.

* One option is to fix up my 6 year old MS ME and use it when I want to
run either of these two programs. To that end, I ordered a new WD
harddrive to replace my C & D drives. However, I would now have to upkeep
two different computers all the time.

* Another possibility is to obtain a MS XP v2002 OS to upgrade the MS ME
to XP OS on my desktop FAT32 C drive, (assuming it won't mess with my
programs or with the system.ini file) then somehow get this same XP OS (on
the old desktop) over to my Vista notebook as some sort of a multiboot.(I
assume XP 2002 would have drivers for the notebook monitor and keyboard.)
Apparently the XP 2003 OS will not work or upgrade at all on a MS ME
computer. When I see written that XP and Vista can be used in multiboots,
I can't tell which XP version (2002, 2003, 2007?) they are talking about.
Another issue is if I install XP 2002 on my desktop, Microsoft might want
me to pay money to reinstall it on my Vista notebook, which would be a 2nd
machine.

* Another possibility is to try out the Vistual PC 2007 which supposedly
allows Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, etc. to be run along with Vista. I've
downloaded the free program and will work on the courage to tenative try
it maybe.

I have health problems and don't have spans of time to do a lot of
computer testing work. If anyone sees me heading for a disaster here,
please advise.
Jon.
Click to expand...

I installed the MS VisualPC2007. After install, I tried to install my MS ME
OS from a backup disk. VisualPC errored me by saying I can only install the
OS in a Gateway computer (which is what the MS ME OS disk was made for).
Apparently I cannot install an OS from an OEM disk on a different computer.
I also tried to install MS Win 98 from a backup disk of the OS but got the
same answer. So, unless I have a full retail version of a MS OS at big
bucks, I can't put it on the Virtualpc system.

Meanwhile, I got advice that I could install almost any size WD harddrive on
my MS ME machine to replace two 40 GB drives there, one of which has 8 bad
sectors. Both are 6 years old. The new WD 160 GB drive wouldn't install.
Relooking at the WD brochure that came with the drive I find that MS ME will
only accept a max 137 GB drive. 160 GB is too big. I can buy a card for $20
to $70 to make it work, but ... To complicate matters, I tried to run the
160GB off a proven USB connection on my Vista computer and it wouldn't
register as a working drive. Maybe it's a dead harddrive to start with? I'll
just try to return the drive and get a smaller 120GB or 80GB drive.

I'm now wondering why I spend all that big money on a Vista computer when
I'll end up fixing my old MS ME computer just to run programs... There's no
end to all this. Jon the disgruntled.
 
Jon said:
As clarification, 2 old programs on my MS ME desktop computer had required
that I make changes in the system.ini file while they are being installed
years ago. Once this is done they work great on MS ME. That's why I can't
just use the desktop as an appendege to my Vista computer because the
Vista booting doesn't do the right tricks to make these programs work. I
dimly recall that someone told me this system.ini trick would not work on
a NT OS, especially MS Win 3.1 NS. On my Vista notebook, changing the
system.ini file has been a problem, but also some of the registry entries
don't get written during the program installation process- and apparently
the reuired lines are copied into my my personal "documents" folder. To
get these old programs to work I have to boot from a MS ME OS.

* One option is to fix up my 6 year old MS ME and use it when I want to
run either of these two programs. To that end, I ordered a new WD
harddrive to replace my C & D drives. However, I would now have to upkeep
two different computers all the time.

* Another possibility is to obtain a MS XP v2002 OS to upgrade the MS ME
to XP OS on my desktop FAT32 C drive, (assuming it won't mess with my
programs or with the system.ini file) then somehow get this same XP OS (on
the old desktop) over to my Vista notebook as some sort of a multiboot.(I
assume XP 2002 would have drivers for the notebook monitor and keyboard.)
Apparently the XP 2003 OS will not work or upgrade at all on a MS ME
computer. When I see written that XP and Vista can be used in multiboots,
I can't tell which XP version (2002, 2003, 2007?) they are talking about.
Another issue is if I install XP 2002 on my desktop, Microsoft might want
me to pay money to reinstall it on my Vista notebook, which would be a 2nd
machine.

* Another possibility is to try out the Vistual PC 2007 which supposedly
allows Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, etc. to be run along with Vista. I've
downloaded the free program and will work on the courage to tenative try
it maybe.

I have health problems and don't have spans of time to do a lot of
computer testing work. If anyone sees me heading for a disaster here,
please advise.
Jon.
Click to expand...

Maybe I have a simple problem. I installed on my Vista notebook my big
program (which works great on my MS ME desktop.) During the install process
Vista gave this error:

"Warning - files failed to self register"
"c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\DAO\Dao350.dll"

I looked in the referenced DAO folder and found the Dao350.dll file is in
there. My installed program has 6 differerent Master index files who relate
named procedures with number files like F0062, F0063, etc. The installed
program apparently won't run because it can't find the 6 Master files to run
the procedures. The Master files installed and are there as they should be
and have the location of the F0062, etc. files in them. The install program
only showed the one error above. I suspect the unregistered "Dao350.dll"
file is supposed to tell the big program the location or the names of the
Master files, but a link is missing. Probably the address location above was
supposed to be inserted in the system registry during the installation
process. I don't know enough about Registry to mess around with it but maybe
somebody else does. If so maybe my problem is easily solveable. The retail
price of my big program is $4800, so I don't want to lose it to Vista. Any
thoughts? Jon.
 
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