Jerome, Well, you could use VirtualBox for example. It supports even windows 3.1 as a guest O.S. Also, it's free.
I would by an of the shell laptop, install you favourite modern O.S. W7, W8,1, W10, or Linux <insert you fav. distro here> and on top of that VirtualBox. VirtualBox allows you to create VM's with SATA, PATA/IDE and SCSI disks all being container file(s) on the host OS. I have a W98 virtual machine I only keep for posterity, and is rarely powered up, but it still does work. Regards, Ed -- Ik email, dus ik besta. BTC : 1J5fajt8ptyZ2V1YURj3YJZhe5j3fJVSHN LTC : LP2WuEmYPbpWUBqMFGJfdm7pdHEW7fKvDz On Thu, January 28, 2016 17:44, Jerome H. Fine wrote: > I run Windows 98SE on a 14 year old Pentium III. I have > replaced the power supply twice and all three hard disk drives. > > It is a really good system to run the Ersatz-11 emulator for the > PDP-11, specifically RT-11. Since Ersatz-11 has built-in VT100 > emulation, I don't need a separate terminal emulator. I also run > Netscape 7.2 for e-mail and newsgroups. And that is all - no > surfing the internet or google of any sort. Incidentally, I use > Ghost 7.0 for backups to DVDs. > > Aside from the daylight savings time changing 3 weeks too late > in the spring and a week early in the fall, I really like the system > and I would like to use it for another 20 years. Since I am > 77 years old now, I figure that will be just about satisfactory. > > The Pentium III hardware is more than a bit of a concern. I would > be very pleased to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 10, but the DOS > variant of Ersatz-11 is not supported and I really would prefer to > keep using Netscape 7.2 since I have over 100,000 e-mails > and posts to newsgroups that it is important to be able to keep. > > QUESTION: Is it even possible to run Win98SE on a current > Intel I7 CPU with SATA hard disk drives? I realize that it might > be possible under a virtual machine, but I really want all of the > advantages that Win98SE provides. One problem, of course, > is that there must be a patch to Win98SE when more than 1 GB > of actual physical RAM is present. But I can't seem to find out > anything else. > > What leads me to believe that there is a reasonable chance is > that the IDENTICAL 3.5" floppy media is able to boot DOS > from drive A: and run on both the Pentium III (with a 3.5" HD > floppy drive, of course) AND on a Q9550 Core 2 quad CPU > which also has a 3.5" HD floppy drive which currently runs > 64-bit Windows 7 from the C: drive, of course, using three > SATA hard drives where the C: drive has an NTFS file > structure and all the other partitions on all of the SATA drives > have a FAT32 file structure. So without really understanding > the details of the device drivers and the BIOS, it would seem > that the SATA drive hardware and software is compatible. > > Ghost 7.0 is a file on the F: drive of the Q9550 CPU > (first extended partition of the 1st physical SATA hard drive). > Ghost is able to take a file produced as a backup image on > the Pentium III system (and copied over the router connecting > the Pentium III and the Q9500 systems - that also provides > internet access for both systems) and re-create the same files > on a specified partition on the Q9550 via the Ghost 7.0 > program while the Q9550 is booted from the 3.5" floppy > media. > > Since the SATA hard drives on the Q9550 system don't seem > to have a problem with DOS on the floppy, then I have some > hope that Win98SE could manage them as well. Has anyone > experience or knowledge about being able to run Win98SE > using an Intel I7 CPU with SATA hard drives all of them using > a FAT32 file structure? > > Alternatively, does it seem reasonable to attempt to keep a > system with a Pentium III CPU and associated hardware > running for another 20 years? > > Jerome Fine >