Ten-stage checklist
- Preserve: old PCs, disks/images, source archives, binaries and data.
- Inventory: installers, DLL/OCX/BPL files, licenses/dongles and manuals.
- Identify: executable technologies, databases and file formats.
- Reproduce: a known-good workflow in an isolated copy.
- Observe: inputs, outputs, files, registry, network and devices.
- Map dependencies: runtimes, services, shares, drivers and startup order.
- Recover data: preserve schemas, encodings and sample outputs.
- Recover build: source, compilers, packages and scripts where possible.
- Document behavior: screenshots, states, errors and evidence confidence.
- Decide: preserve, repair, migrate or replace.
Minimum handover set
Include configuration and registry exports, database copies, network/device details, operator interviews, recovery steps and ownership. Store originals separately from experiments.
See software archaeology, documentation, dependency mapping and reverse engineering.