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
lipp AT storserver DOT com

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Thomas Denier
Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 2:40 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
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?