Door-lock security system

I wasn't sure if I should post this in programming or in Tech-to-Tech, so if it's in the wrong spot by the moderator's point of view, by all means feel free to move me :)

I just got back from the local county jail. They have a 486 machine running MS-DOS 6.0 for their door-locking security system. It's a pretty neat setup, with a touch screen interface and a layout of the jail. The problem is that the computer is getting old and they are starting to have problems with it.. like the hard drive starting to crash, the ps going out, you know.. stuff associated with age and the heat of a ps fan that's been stopped for way too long from the sounds of it.

The problem they are going to run into is this: The company that made the software is no longer supporting jails or is no longer developing that type of software.

Does anyone know where they could find a programmer or business to take up the support of the software or any other companies that make software like this?

I'm in the process of testing a bunch of old hard drives we had laying around the shop to take out there and transfer data over to it, but it's a matter of time before disaster strikes. There's no telling if this softare would be compatible with a system that's litterally hundreds times faster and running a new OS.

depends upon what language its written in.

i write dos based programs using MS Professional BASIC which has JET RDBMS structured db's; my progs run on any machine (now running on t-bird 1.2ghz). they can be as complicated or as simple as u like.

:)

I used to work with a company that had developeda new type of fingerprint recognition system - and I developed a door control system.

There shoudl not be any reason that the software/hardware would not work in a newer machine with clean hardware, as long as you were meticulious in the build.

Why not just backup the software and take with you? Pkzip is a wonderful thing.

pkzip -ex a:dosware -rp -&fl

will zip all files including subdirectories and send it to multiple floppies formatting each floppy first.

then if you dont have winzip installed on the new machine place the last disk of the backup in the floppy drive and type

pkunzip a:dosware -d

it will then prompt you for the correct floppy.

all this assumes you have pkzip.exe and pkunzip.exe either in the current path or directory.

Thanks for the recommendations so far :)

The issue here isn't so much of a data backup to preserve the software, but the inevitable death of the computer's mainboard (It's a 486DX 33). The controller card that for the system is ISA and we all know how those slots on mainboards are disappearing.

I am mainly looking for referrals for this county jail in Ohio so they'll have someone to turn to when the system needs to be replaced.