I have just returned from a three week sailing trip across to Tasmania and cant get my head around a little computer problem that I have, any assistance would be most appreciated.
I have an ARL 3460 OES Spectrometer which is controlled by proprietary software (WIN OES v2.1) which is can be loaded into Windows 95 environment only. The upgrade to Windows 7 software (OXAXIS) costs about $15k and is out of the question at that price. On Monday when I went to fire up the old Windows 95 computer things remained blank. Most probably the graphics card but it was pretty full of mouse droppings and dust in the case. Tried a whole assortment of cards but none seemed to work. None of the local computer stores or SH computer shops have stuff for old computers anymore. I installed the hard drive into another old retired computer and got part of the way through booting up before it hung up.
I then downloaded Virtual Computer 2004 which is host compatible with Windows XP and guest compatible with Windows 95. Downloaded Acronis Image Maker and made a backup of the spectrometer W95 hardrive. What I have is a fully functional hardrive with W95 OS, the Spectrometer Software and all of the callibration data and results for the past several years. I also have the original Spectrometer Software CD and callibration data on floppy discs. I do not have a Windows 95 installation or boot disk.
I think that I need a Windows 95 installation disk. Anyone know where I can get one? Then can anyone guide me through the process of setting up a Windows 95 virtual computer on my XP host. Is it possible to restore the backed up spectrometer W95 hardrive in the virtual computer and then as if by magic simply press start and see it boot up.(with or without the W95 installation disk). I have set up a virtual W95 computer but am really out of my depth already and it keeps asking for the boot disk.
Cheers
Frant
Crikey, I know enough about computers, to know that I'm glad I'm not you. That sound like pretty heavy going. You will be able to do it, but it will take time - probably lots, but you could get lucky. Google, patience and blind determination will be your friend during this process. If you get stuck - walk away - then come back to it when you have another idea.
I'd persist with the virtual machine method for a while longer, if your host computer and your virtual machine has and can read from the floppy disk drive, I'd keep going. After that, it's just a matter of installing win 95 with the disk you asked for and then installing the proprietary software you have.
If you can't get that happening, look at purchasing some old computer with 95 already loaded on it with a floppy drive - there must be thousands of these in landfill. And then install the proprietary software from floppies. If all goes well then you should be up and running.
Computers are all about input and and output.
The bigger problem I see with this is that when you eventually get this all running on win 95, you are probably going to want to save your output into some format that newer computers also understand so you can mess with it and interpret it on a newer system. I'm guessing it's some sort of database.
What sort of files does this program output?
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Sorry, just read your post again. As you already had this up and running on an old machine running 95 and your software - it sounds like your old video card is dead. Look at getting another one, newer cards won't work - the old 95 software drivers probably don't understand the architecture of the new cards. I'd keep trying that for a while. Do this until you get a picture happening - that's what I would do first. If this fails for too long then go virtual machine.
I reckon you're on the right track with the virtual machine idea -- I know of at least one program that's written in BASIC on an Apple ][e which is still in production... of course the hardware is long dead but it keeps on trucking inside a virtual machine. Funny thing is it runs a million percent quicker now 
Do a google for Win95 Boot Disc image and you should be able to connect the image to the virtual machine's 'floppy drive', which should put you back in business...
Try posting on the 'broadband' forum that sounds like a washing machine, there's a lot more computer nerds there...
Frant
Go to the computer recyclers and pick up a dozen pc's running WIN95 and try them theres bound to be one that works.
I wanna know why you have a spectrometer - just something you have in the shed ?
Probably next to the GC mass spec, particle accelerator, MRI machine and a small prototypre fusion reactor?
I've got a mini hadron colider if anyone is interested? I've just finished the tunnel under my house so I can use a large one now
yes , last time i looked [about 30 years ago] a spectrometer was something that anolized the particals in any substance.
interesting gadget to carry on the yacht frant!
Hmmm, I wonder if it would run in "wine" in linux?
That's a program that provides a windows environment, for windows programs.
I've just checked mine, and I can set it to windows 95.
I've just purchased the January edition of Linux Magazine, it has a live DVD of Knoppix with it.
If you're interested I can check if that has "wine" installed if so you could run your computer with the knoppix DVD, and use wine to simulate windows 95.
It's not guaranteed to work, but it's only $15 to find out.
Decrepit, for $15 I can buy 3 bottles of red wine. Will share them with you if your idea works!
OK, it does have wine on it and I was able to run an old windows scrabble game on it.
But I did have trouble trying to find the floppy drive, so I just used a program from the hard drive.
You may have to copy the calibration data from floppy and the software from CD on to the hard drive, unless you have separate DVD and CD drives. (The DVD has to stay in from boot to shutdown)
Also be aware that there are 2 operating systems on the DVD, fedora 14 and knoppix.
Fedora isn't a "live" system it's for installing fedora.
Feel free to PM me if I can help.
Frant,
I have a Win 95 OEM disk and a few licence numbers.
I also have a Win95B boot floppy which, would you believe it, I created on 03/03/2001, exactly 10 years ago.
I also have a floppy with usbsupp.exe which is a patch for Win 95 to support usb devices and upgrades the OS to OSR 2.1 which also allows the use of an AGP slot in Win 95.
You are welcome to them if you want them or if all you need is a boot disk, go here www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
If you need a laptop to run the OS and software Ramona seems to know where to find them.
PM me if I can help further. Cheers Cisco.
Geez.
It sounds like the future of the free world depends on it.
I hope you get it going.
I have just installed a brand new Gigabyte G Force 6200 Graphics Accelerator and it works!!!
My primary problem is solved. Let analysis begin.
I migrated a windows 95 machine for my parents a few years back to a more current machine from ebay. It is really hard to find contemporary machines that have windows 95 drivers available. In the end, the machine, a HP D530 I think, ran Win95 fine, after I tracked down their drivers.
The funny thing is that I found the programs I needed to run ran fine in XP compatibility mode.
Just been at home installing the computer back on the spectrometer. Turned the spectrometer vacume pump on and smoke poured out of the motor setting off the fire alarms. Now I am waiting on an urgent courier delivery of a new pump motor. The original Alcatel vacume pump motor is a 0.37kW motor with a 14mm dia shaft but standard mounting flange for a 0.18KW motor. Will have to machine an adaptor flange to mate the new motor to the pump body. But at least you can see what you are doing with mechanical stuff unlike those damn computers.
