Duel boot a 1.4Ghz MS ME HD on my Vista 2.1 Ghz - WIll it work?

J

Jon

My old desktop Master ISA 40GB primary drive has modified programs that
won't
work at all on my new Gateway Vista notebook. I'm thinking of buying a USB
to IDE adapter for hooking up my old desktop HD as a duel boot hookup, and
just plug in my old desktop drive to Vista. Before I do so I could use
opinions on feasibility and/or pratical advice.

My desktop HD (Gateway E-4600) is an X86 based PC, 32 bit, Intel 1400 MHz
(Intel4) CPU, 640 KB Memory, MS ME (Millenium edition) Dos 8.0 with Windows
4.90 bld 3000, and has a few DOS, Win 3.1 and Win 98 program, plus MS Office
2002-SP-2. The HD is Fat 32, Western Digital Generic IDE type 47, 40 GB. All
programs work great right now but my power supply may be failing.
I have 3 stockmarket programs in particular that required some special
workarounds in the MS ME system.ini to work and are no longer software
supported, as well as a ton of private encrypts that I want to use w/ my
Vista.
notebook before my desktop fails completely.

My notebook is Vista Ultimate Intel 2, T7400 2.16 Ghz, 32bit, 2046 MB mem,
NTFS HD.

I'm a bit of a novice at hardware but I think I'm just swapping a 2.1 Ghz
CPU for an old 1.4 Ghz CPU and old programs that work. Will this wacko duel
boot idea work? Any special precautions? Any other's experience like this?
Thanks in advance, Jon.
 
J

Jon

Thanks. I believe in Vista BIOS I can have it duel boot off a USB drive.
I don't know if the ME OS would balk if booted w/ a VISTA CPU. I'd suspect
it would just see a faster CPU. The ME OS would not be on a NTFS-formatted
drive (rather on FAT 16 or FAT 32) but none of my flash drives are this way
either and they work OK. I'm wanting to mothball or scrap my old desktop,
not having to keep 2 computers running for my stock market data.
Right now I'm not sure attaching my MS ME drive via USB VISA duel boot will
really work, but I suspect it will... but nervous about trying it.
Jon.
 
M

Michael Jennings

I suppose that the Windows ME on the desktop hard drive is an
OEM version, which has no drivers for your notebook. It is also
apt to suspect you of attempting to steal Windows, if it will boot.
Check with Gateway about drivers for the notebook which are
suitable for earlier versions of Windows than Vista.

Since the end you wish to achieve is having the data and programs
that are incompatible with Vista running in the Vista notebook, you
should concentrate on that goal, to evaluate your need for it, rather
than on plugging the desktop's hard drive into the notebook, which
might work but is likely not to. To get that one out of the way,
booting the USB drive to a DOS prompt would resolve the issue
of whether it will boot or not. Are you given the option to create
an MS-DOS startup disk when you Format the USB drive? If not,
boot disks are available for download from the Internet. If you can't
get the USB drive to boot the laptop, you're done with that option.

Is it worth buying XP or 98se for a virtual machine or partition in
the notebook (I don't think you can buy ME) versus a thirty dollar
power supply unit to keep the desktop alive? It wouldn't be to me.

For disaster protection investigate drive imaging software:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/examples.html

some for XP. They won't have any for ME.
 

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