Hi everyone. I am pretty stumped right now. I have a bunch of old laptops that run Windows 95 with software that will only run on them. We want to convert these to virtual machines because the laptops could die any day. Here's what I've tried so far:
Using VMWare Converter:
1. Tried to install it on the laptop running Windows 95 - couldn't install, the OS is not supported.
2. From a WinXP computer, running VMWare Converter and going through the network to back it up. Error - Unable to connect to the remote VMWare Converter Agent. The remote host is not accessible using Microsoft Network Services. Fyi I can get to everywhere on the network with this laptop.
I tried making an image of the laptop drive using Acronis True Image Echo Workstation. This created a .tib file. VMWare Converter is supposed to be able to convert .tib files to a virtual machine. I tried this and got the error message 'Unable to load the source virtual machine or image. The file might be corrupt, or of an unsupported format.'
Through the Acronis program, there is also an option to Convert Backup to Virtual Disk. So I took the .tib file I had and did just this. It actually finished but only created a .vmdk file and nothing else, just that single .vmdk file. I don't know what to do with just that file. Usually there are configuration files that go along with it, like a .vmx file.
So, has anyone successfully taken a working Windows 95 pc and converted it to a virtual disk using any program? Please let me know if you have any opinions on this.
Thanks,
Matt