Will backup work?

[gulabg]

I had an old emachine with two hard drives. One had XP and the other had Windows98. I needed windows98 to run some old programs. The motherboard on
the computer stopped working. I went and bought a new computer with XP on it.
I put the windows98 drive in it as the second drive. When I changed the bootup drive
to windows98 drive, it is bringing up windows installation wizard and asking me
about owner's name and key. I put in my name and the key, as I have the original
disc, but it would not accept it.
I do have a norton ghost backup of that drive. Do you know it that backup will work
or it will still give me the same problem?
Is it possible that the operating system will only work on the orginial computer on
which it was installed? Can I boot up from the CD ROM using my original CD and
reinstall the system?
Many thanks for your help.

Best regards,
Gulab

 

[Tedster]

you cannot swap hard drives on machines. The OS configures itself specifically for the machine it was installed on - in addition, it's illegal.

 

[strategic]

To add to what Tedster states, I don't know which programs you are trying to run under Windows 98, but you should be able to 'right-click' the program you are trying to run, and under 'properties' select the 'compatibility' tab and choose to run with Windows 98 compatibility mode.

 

[ravisunny2]

you cannot swap hard drives on machines. The OS configures itself specifically for the machine it was installed on - in addition, it's illegal.

'Swapping' hard drives is illegal ?

Can I boot up from the CD ROM using my original CD and reinstall the system?

Should be able to do so.

 

[gulabg]

This raises an interesting question. Is transferring a hard drive from one computer
to another illegal? It is my hard drive and I paid for it. If my computer broke down,
I still paid for the operating system license for one computer. Does it really matter
what computer do I use the program on? I still do have the original disc. Will supplier
of the program take it back if the computer broke down?
I will appreciate any legal opinion about this?

Best regards,
Gulab

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

This raises an interesting question. Is transferring a hard drive from one computer
to another illegal?

Only if it has Windows (maybe other companies OS's have a similar policies?) on it, and even then, only if microsoft finds out .

On top of that, windows does configure itself to individual computers as said above, meaning you really shouldn't swap hdds anyway.

 

[rf6647]

Micro$oft license agreements for Win95, Win98, WinME are not as strict as for the other lines of OS from M$. If Win98 was tied to the Emachine, then the license is restricted to that CPU/mobo/bios. If there is a full installation CD for Win98, then there is no restriction. Recovery CD implies a restriction.

Many years ago moving Win98 between computers was frustrated by finding the correct drivers to preload on the drive to work with the new cpu. However, the messages included in the description appear to be coming from the boot ... so which drives are physically connected? What dual boot environment existed on the Emachine? The enforcement of licenses are likely coming from WinXP boot code.

I believe that a reload of Win98 creates a fresh copy of the registry... losing linkages to installed applications.

 

[gulabg]

My previous emachine had two hard drive, one with XP OS and another with WIN98
OS. I was able to boot with either drive by changing BOIS.
Emachine broke down and I bought another computer with XP OS on it. I transferred
WIN98 disc as the second drive. I changed BOIS to boot from WIN98 drive. It brings
up WIN98 installation wizard asks for name and key. I do have the original disc, so
I insert the info but it does not work.
Probably I should just format the WIN98 disc and then reinstall from CDROM original
disc. I hope that will work. What do you think?

Best regards,
Gulabs

 

[vectorsigma32]

lol wont work unless u hav a full retail copy of windows 98 XD

 

[jackkent]

I think you may try to google for a second key. WIN98 is an obsolete product, so you may use other's key legally. Consider it is free now, because you won't buy it brand-new from the market.