Need HELP Migrating Programs to a Newer PC

[mike072983]

Hi, I'm Mike and I'm new here on this board. Hopefully, you guys can help me out. Ok, so I just spent the entire Sunday cleaning up an old system that I plan to use as a replacement for my current dinosaur-age system from my office. Here are the specs of the two systems.

Newer (still old) system:
Windows XP Pro Corporate
Intel Celeron 1.1GHz
512MB PC133 SDRam
30GB Maxtor HDD

Older system:
Windows 98 Second Edition
Intel Celeron 533MHz
192MB PC100 SDRam
7GB Wester Digital HDD

Yes, I know both systems are really old and shouldn't even be in use. But for their purposes, they do just fine. The 1.1GHz runs decently fast after a clean install.

My problem is that I need to transfer an installed program from the old comp to the newer comp. I no longer have the installation CD. I really need to the program as it is the database and billing software for my business.

I have the software Laplink PC Mover, which I tried using to migrate the program from the old comp to the newer comp, but after it transfer over, the program didn't work. The program would load up find, but further navigation would result in an error message "Limit exceeds what is specified in win.ini". The migration also changed a bunch of the WinXP systems file to that of Win98, causing the newer comp to become slow and unstable. Of course, I undid the migration process and it's back to normal. But I'm still without the program.

Can anyone help or recommend anything? Thanks in advance.

 

[Nodsu]

As a rule, you cannot do this. Different programs may depend on many registry entries, configuration files and other files installed in pretty arbitrary locations. This is espcially true for older software. There is no reliable way to detect all this.

If you have the licence (key) for the program, then you may be able to download it off the internet (P2P) even or request a copy from the author and reinstall.

 

[membrane]

I agree with above. Go to a t!"£$%t site and you should be able to find a copy.
Use a client like Bitspirit. Not strictly legal but if you have the licience key it will be fine as it's the key you pay for.

 

[mike072983]

Sorry I haven't gotten back with an update. Well I tried copying all the .DLL files associated with the program to the new computer. That seemed to work half-way, the program loads up but all functions resulted in the error message "Exceeds limits in WIN.INI." Therefore, I decided to copy the contents of the old win.ini file and paste it into the new win.ini. Bingo! Everything works....well almost everything. Now I'm faced with one last problem, and perhaps the most important feature of the program. I can't add any new information to the database. I can search, view, and edit information of clients already stored in the database, but any attempt to add new billing items, it just won't save. I've tried relentlesly searching for a .DLL or any kind of extension file I think might be associate with the saving feature but have come up empty. I guess I'll just have to give up and go back to using the old computer for now, until I find a better software and upgrade all together. Thanks for all the input.

 

[Nodsu]

Another solution would be running a virtual machine for the legacy programs. Download and install VMware Server or Microsoft Virtual PC on your new machine (they are free) and install Windows 98 inside that.

 

[lipe123]

Judging from ur system specs I'd say ur using win98 on both machines. And u mentioned a clean install on the 1.1ghz meaning its got nothing important on.

Win98 isnt very picky about hardware, just ghost the 533hdd to the 1.1 hdd and boot ur old windows on the new hardware, load the motherboard drivers and ur done. If u get errors and the like, do a in place reinstall of windows.