Create DOS 5.0 setup disks from within DosBox-x ? \ VOGONS

Create DOS 5.0 setup disks from within DosBox-x ?

Topic actions

First post, by TomVDJ

Posted on 2025-11-17, 17:50

TomVDJ Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 66
Joined: 2007-01-06, 17:48

Hey all. Let me describe first what I'd like to do: I have DOS 5.0 original floppy images. I remember that in DOS 5.0 with the SETUP/F command, you could create "backups" or a set of floppy disks to boot your PC and install DOS. I'd like to make such a set of disks (or disk images of these disks).

I tried to do this in Dosbox-x but without success. I mounted the images of DOS 5.0 on A: and empty disk images on B:, but DOS 5.0 doesn't seem to recognize B: to write to. It doesn't even show up in the setup program.

From within dosbox itself, I can perfectly write files to the B: drive (and these files actually end up in the disk image too, so exactly what I want), but once I start SETUP/F in DOS 5.0 I can not select the B drive. The setup program doesn't seem to recognize it. I tried connecting physical USB floppy drive through USB and mount that one on dosbox-x and that one does show up in the setup program of DOS, but once I want to write to it (so writing to an actual floppy), I get the message that it is an incorrect disk. So also there I got stuck.

I mount the images just with imgmount disk01.ima -t floppy.

Somebody here has some ideas or tips on how to achieve this?

(I know this is a very specific question but I don't want to go into the details why I want to do this. I don't want to loose time here to discuss the "why?". Let's say the "how" is MUCH more important here. Consider it a case study 😉.)

Thanks in advance for the help or suggfestions!

Reply 1 of 8, by ntalaec

Posted on 2025-11-17, 20:05

ntalaec Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 117
Joined: 2019-01-03, 18:25

I think official DOSBox can't mount more than one floppy image at once so you can't switch between several disk images. I'm not sure about DOSBox-X. Besides that, PCem or 86Box seems a more useful option to do what you want to do.

Reply 2 of 8, by TomVDJ

Posted on 2025-11-17, 21:05

TomVDJ Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 66
Joined: 2007-01-06, 17:48

DOSBox-X can switch between images, that's not a problem. I might give PCem a try. Is that one able to write to disk images better (or 86Box)?

Reply 3 of 8, by ntalaec

Posted on 2025-11-17, 22:49

ntalaec Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 117
Joined: 2019-01-03, 18:25

PCem and 86Box fully emulate computers of that era including dual floppy drives. Both should be a better option in this case than any variant of DOSBox.

Reply 4 of 8, by DaveDDS

Posted on 2025-11-18, 00:01

DaveDDS Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1014
Joined: 2021-05-09, 23:07
Location: Canada

I've had good luck booting DOS images under DosBox - and you can imgmount drive B: if you want first.

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

Reply 5 of 8, by jmarsh

Posted on 2025-11-18, 01:59

jmarsh Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1740
Joined: 2014-01-04, 09:17

You probably want to mount the disk images as raw block devices (as devices 0 or 1 rather than A or B) for low level access like disk copying and formatting to work. You will need to specify the disk parameters for this to work.

Reply 6 of 8, by DaveDDS

Posted on 2025-11-18, 05:32

DaveDDS Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1014
Joined: 2021-05-09, 23:07
Location: Canada

I made up a little tool (available on my site) called: DBDOS
which boots all the actual DOS versions I could find under DosBox.

It contains boot floppy images for:

1IBM PC-DOS: 0.90(beta), 1.00, 1.10, 2.10, 3.00, 3.30, 7.1
2MicroSoft MS-DOS: 1.12, 2.11, 3.31, 4.00, 5.00, 6.22
3Caldera OpenDOS 7.01
4ParagonTechnologySystem PTS-DOS 5.51
5FreeDos 0.84

This tool copies the DOS image you select to my R:(RamDrive) as R:\A.IMG
You can also select to have a B: drive, which is expects to be in: R:\B.IMG
** You can build 1.44 blank with my FDI tool: FDI R:\B.IMG -B1440

It then creates a DBDOS.INI which contains the following autoexec line:

1boot R:\A R:\B

and launches DosBox which has no trouble figuring out what disks these images represent (they are raw binary sector dumps DOS5.IMG is a 1.44 - 1,474,560 bytes in size)

Note: I still use my own version of DosBox based on "MegaBuild 6" (yeah, I know - everyone sez newer ones are better - but MB6 works well for me and newer are MUCH bigger and still haven't fixed bugs I've noticed - some of which I've fixed) - but as far as I know X etc. should work the same way!

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

Reply 7 of 8, by TomVDJ

Posted on 2025-11-18, 18:54

TomVDJ Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 66
Joined: 2007-01-06, 17:48

jmarsh wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:59:

You probably want to mount the disk images as raw block devices (as devices 0 or 1 rather than A or B) for low level access like disk copying and formatting to work. You will need to specify the disk parameters for this to work.

This is a bit cryptic to me. What emulator are you talking about here?

Reply 8 of 8, by BloodyCactus

Posted on 2025-11-18, 19:19

BloodyCactus Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1550
Joined: 2016-02-03, 13:34
Location: Lexington VA

TomVDJ wrote on 2025-11-18, 18:54:

jmarsh wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:59:

You probably want to mount the disk images as raw block devices (as devices 0 or 1 rather than A or B) for low level access like disk copying and formatting to work. You will need to specify the disk parameters for this to work.

This is a bit cryptic to me. What emulator are you talking about here?

in dosbox, use the "-t floppy -fs none" so it doesnt look for a filesystem and use 0 for A: and 1 for B: eg: imgmount 0 x.img -t floppy -fs none

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to DOSBox General