Problem Cloning a Windows 3.1 Hard Drive

[kcdanielj]

Hello,

My company has two old PC's that run Widows 3.1 and a software on it that controls machinery. One of the hard drives completely went out. The software is obsolete and we have no install disks. So what I attempted was to clone the good PC's Hard Drive to a new hard drive using Acronis Disk Director.

The clone went through but what I found is I am unable to boot to the new drive. After the post it does attempt to launch from the hard drive but I simply get a flashing cursor. Were this a Windows XP or newer machine I would try fixing the system files or the master boot record. Being a Windows 3.1 image I am not sure how to proceed to try to fix the boot problem.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Daniel

 

[edfair]

floppy work on both machines? If so, format on the working one a floppy to use as a system disk then add the system files and sys file. Boot with it on the other one. Then sys c:. (which you will have put in place.

That will transfer the 3 files it needs to boot.

Any you probably need to get a couple more hard drives and clone them then test them. Better to be prepared.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[apstef]

After you manage to clone it, can you consider running the whole OS and software in a virtual machine?