What about a low tech solution to the problem: can the data be exported to something more portable, like tab delimited or CSV? They you could read the data using a bunch of different tools. Probably tough as you don't have the source. But maybe some hacking?
Kelly J. Lipp VP Manufacturing & CTO STORServer, Inc. 485-B Elkton Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80907 719-266-8777 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Thomas Denier Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 2:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ADSM-L] VMWare and software archeology I work for a large hospital. Four or five years ago one of the clinical departments replaced a system used to collect and store results from procedures. The old system was built around a proprietary database and ran on a Windows 95 platform that was getting old even when the system was replaced. The department concluded that it was economically infeasible to migrate the contents of the proprietary database to the replacement system. The department still needs read-only access to the information in the old database. Depending on the demographics of their patients, they may need this kind of access for another 20 years; clinical data is normally retained for 7 years after collection or 7 years after the patient's 18th birthday, whichever is later. The department has so far maintained read-only access to the data by keeping the old system up and running with no network connection. The staff access old records using the system's own keyboard and monitor. The department has also had the IS department retain the last TSM backups of the old system. If they need access to their data after the old system stops working, they expect us to perform a bare metal recovery to replacement hardware. This strategy will get less and less plausible as Windows 95 recedes further into the past. I don't know whether we have any alternatives to the this strategy. In particular, I don't know whether the old software will run under newer versions of Windows, and I don't know whether we still have usable distribution media for the old software. Can VMWare simulate a hardware environment compatible with Windows 95 even when the host system is using contemporary hardware? For example, can VMWare simulate an IDE disk drive if the host system is really using SATA, local SCSI, or a SAN to access disk drives?
