More adventures with Windows XP.....

[poltr1]

First the good: I'm able to use my scanner again. I am no longer getting the scripting error I was getting under Windows 98. I can also use my color inkjet printer. Yay! And I've figured out the Management Console, which takes the place of FDISK and FORMAT.

Now the bad: XP has a new backup program, NTBACKUP. It does not read backups generated from the backup program in Windows 98, MSBACKUP. According to the knowledge base, this behavior is by design. Grr argh. I'm trying to juryrig a copy of MSBACKUP I purloined from a backup disc, along with related DLLs. So far, it isn't working.

And of course, the ugly: Windows Update. I still use dialup, which means I risk dying of old age while the updates download. I really wish Microsoft had a way to put these updates on a CD for me. So while these updates are downloading, I'm getting some much-needed offline work done, like cleaning the loft area.

Comments

[filkergem.livejournal.com]

I have not been following the computer saga closely, but I have a thought that might help. If the new XP machine has enough memory and disk space (as seems likely), and you have the media to install Win98 onto a computer, you might play with one of the free virtual machine programs to build a virtual Win98 machine in a file on your XP box, then run MSBACKUP in the virtual machine to make a copy of the Win98 machine that you can run under XP. Then you can use a virtual network tool to copy whatever you need from the Win98 machine onto the XP and be done. In fact, you could make a backup of the virtual machine file so that in case you remember a year later that you need something, you could do the same trick from backup media.

Since this would be a one-time thing, you would not need the fanciest, fastest stuff - I think that VMWare's offerings would be overkill. I would go to http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/ to download the distribution, and http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/ to read more.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Do you have your original Win98 install CD? You could install it onto your new machine onto a separate partition, make the machine dual-boot XP and 98, boot into 98, do the restore, reboot into XP, and then XP will be able to read the Win98 partition and hence the restored files.

[poltr1]

I do, but I misplaced the booklet that had the certificate of authenticity and 25-digit license key.