VOGONS


First post, by yanivsag

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Hi,

I've got an old Dos accounting application working almost perfectly on Dosbox. Almost, because I'm having a problem accessing the floppy disk (real or a virtual one) using that app. I can echo to a txt file through the dosbox command line, but when the app has problem writing to a floppy. it says the diskette is not writable.
Any ideas?
Did happen to anyone on other apps?

thanks

yaniv

Reply 1 of 14, by eL_PuSHeR

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Hi, Yanivsag. Welcome to the forum.

How did you mount the floppy?

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Reply 2 of 14, by yanivsag

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with
mount a c:\floppy -t floppy

Reply 3 of 14, by wd

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c:\floppy is an existing directory, right?

Reply 4 of 14, by yanivsag

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ofcourse. give me some credit dude 😉

Reply 5 of 14, by wd

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Well it's not that obvious.

Anyways, what program is it? Could be that they need direct (int13) access
to the floppy drive.

Reply 6 of 14, by yanivsag

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The application is an hebrew accounting app called Hashavshevet.
I actually don't know about the direct access, but it might be the problem.
can i overcome this in any way?

Reply 7 of 14, by yanivsag

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B.t.w.
it also happened with a real floppy drive

Reply 8 of 14, by wd

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Not that easily, you'd have to install freedos/msdos inside dosbox
using disk images and stuff.
Can't they save on hard disks? Sounds a bit odd that they REQUIRE floppies.

Reply 9 of 14, by yanivsag

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It's odd, but it's also very old...
They have a "backup" mechanism which only works with diskettes. furthermore, the IRS sometimes asks for this floppy to keep track.
I've installed freedos in the past on ms virtual pc. is it problematic under dosbox?
what to do after i install it?

Reply 10 of 14, by wd

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There should be some diskimage tutorial at the guides forum.

After installation the application has full int13 access (lowlevel) to some
mounted floppy image. This should be enough for this type of backup.
The drawback is that, once booted freedos, you loose the regular mounts.

Reply 11 of 14, by yanivsag

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Ok thanks,
i'll try that

Reply 12 of 14, by yanivsag

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i managed to boot into freedos but i only get access to the c drive.
If mount doesn't work anymore, how can i access anything on my computer (hd cdrom etc.)?

Reply 13 of 14, by wd

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You can imgmount the harddisk image (before BOOTing) with the -fs fat
option, then you can copy files to/from the image.

Reply 14 of 14, by yanivsag

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Thanks a lot
you helped me alot.
i'll check the floppy stuff tomorrow as it's almost 3 am here in israel...

thanks again

yaniv