updated: February 10, 2005

Rescue data from a non-booting Windows 98 Virtual PC 4 file via SLAX

Problem:

iMac running OS 9 and Windows 98 inside of Virtual PC 4. Virtual PC starts, but Windows 98 will not boot past the splash screen. Vital data must be rescued from the 1GB+ Virtual PC file.

Solution:

1. Connect iMac to network
2. Insert SLAX CD
3. Open Virtual PC 4. Make sure booting from CD and networking are enabled for your Windows 98 virtual PC.  
4. Start Windows 98  
5. Slax will boot. Login as root and then type mc to start Midnight Commander.  
6. Navigate to the file(s) to be recovered in the left pane (C: will usually be found at /mnt/disc0part1), and open an FTP server in the right pane.  
7. Copy desired data to FTP server.