I have old Signlab Software with a lot of company files that need to be used. What I am wondering is, can I move the old HDD or copy it to the newer computer and use emulating software to run win3.1 and Signlab? The old 486 works great but is not compatible with some of our newer equipment. I just need some input before I mess around with those files.

I would recommend backing up the files and trying it under the new conditions. I would keep the old HDD intact.

Have you tried installing the Signlab software on WinXP? It may work if you run it under Windows95 compatibility mode (or even without using Win95 compatibility mode). As a last resort, you might try installing it on Win 3.1 running under a virtual machine (such as MS Virtual PC 2004---as you eluded to). But nevertheless (as wizard-fred mentions), don't do anything with the old HDD until you know for certain you have a solution (and you have your data files backed up).

Its possible, but it depends on what kind of hard drive it is. I have a very old IBM PS/2 with a 486 processor and Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and has a 100 Mb hard drive (all made in 1992). The problem with very old equipment like this is that standereds have changed from then to now. This computer only has an SCSI adapter (so it can only use SCSI hard drives), and the hard drive is SCSI. SCSI is extremely old and somewhat obsolete. Most computers have IDE or SATA hard drives, meaning that older SCSI equitment will not connect to them. Also, back before the BIOS controled all the hardware on a computer, there would be DIP switches on all hardware devices, little switches that would have to be adjusted to set the IRQ or memory addresses of that device. Most SCSI hard drives have a set of switches that tell the hard drive if it is the main or secondary hard drive, etc. If you can't get the hard drive to hook up with new equitment, you could try transferring the data you need with a null modem cable or a LapLink cable. I use a LapLink cable, which hooks up to the computer's printer ports, and a program called Total Commander to transfer data between the 2 computers.

>>>Most computers have IDE or SATA hard drives, meaning that older SCSI equitment will not connect to them.<<< Well, now that's just plain wrong. Even though most new "complete" machines come with IDE or SATA drives, a PCI SCSI interface card would be all that's needed to use a SCSI drive in a new machine: http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/search... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat... >>>SCSI is extremely old and somewhat obsolete.<<< Old, maybe. Obsolete, by no means. While there's few SCSI-based machines out there for the home buyer, SCSI drives (while not as cheap, but more time-tested) are still out there with the best of the IDE's & SATA's : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...

Just doing a little browsing here... My personal note on SCSI: SAS (Serial Atached SCSI) is one of the fastest hard drive technologies out there to date, only second to Fibre Channel. In fact, SATA was based off of SAS. You can even run a SATA drive off a SAS bus.