Convert a Powered Off W98 PC

[williamsmike]

I have a W98 PC that is functional and needed in a stand-alone environment, not networked. The hardware is becoming unreliable and takes up space, want to convert it to a VM. Converter will not install on W98 and so far I have been unsuccessful trying to install the agent from a remote machine.

I can remove the SATA hard drive and connect it USB to a W11 PC running Standalone Converter (and also using VMware Workstation to run another VM). But Converter will not work on a dark OS.

Is there a way to make an image of that W98 drive that I can then convert to a VMDK?

Mike

[continuum]

Create a one piece disk-image with dd.
Write vmdk-descriptorfile for the image.
Create new Win98 VM and assign existing vmdk.
You do not need Converter at all - but you need a lot of luck and the original Win98 iso-images.
If possible try this with VMware running on an older PC.

Ulli

[stadi13]

Maybe Starwind V2V Converter can help you. I have done a Windows Server 2000 with a very very very old vCenter Standalone Converter to vSphere 5.5.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter