Dosbox and USB connected floppies under Win7? \ VOGONS

Dosbox and USB connected floppies under Win7?

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First post, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-06, 20:08

lasitter Offline

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I have these old Dos .EXE files that generate disc images onto an attached FDD, but I'm having conflicting problems making this work.

Win7 sees the FDD and will format it normally. It will not run the old .EXE files because they expect to run under either DOS or OS/2 ...

After mounting A:\, Dosbox will attempt to run the old .EXE file as long as you don't actually write the output to the FDD. If you do that, when it gets to the point of actually writing the disk, (as I sort of expected) it reports Drive A: not ready/unknown media.

I've failed to get the Virtual XP Machine working but the install fails, so to date I can't get route working.

I'm hoping that there's some setting in the .conf file that will help me get to where I want to be, so if you have a suggestions, I'm all ears!

I'm also willing to entertain the notion of installing additional software just to make the floppy more functional. I've also considered something like VMWare player, but don't want to go that way until other options are exhausted.

Many thanks in advance.

Reply 1 of 10, by Jorpho

Posted on 2020-03-06, 20:51

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Try using imgmount in DOSBox to mount a blank floppy image (or just a copy of some other disk image). After you run your program, you can then use a Windows program to write the image to a floppy.

If necessary, you can try booting an OS in DOSBox first, but if it comes to that, PCem would probably be a better idea.

Reply 2 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-07, 17:15

lasitter Offline

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Thanks. How do you mount a blank floppy image in DOSBox? Then I run my .EXE to write to the blank image, and then some windows to copy the image to the physical floppy disc in Win7? What Win7 program would you suggest?

Reply 3 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-07, 17:21

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How about some version of WinImage?

Reply 4 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-11, 16:57

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Where can I download the version of IMGMOUNT that can be run within DOSBox?

Reply 5 of 10, by Dominus

Posted on 2020-03-11, 17:10

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it's part of Dosbox -> a command in dosbox

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Reply 6 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-11, 17:22

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Is it something you configure in the .conf file? When I type "imgmount" at the dosbox command line, I just get "illegal command: imgmount.

Reply 7 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-11, 17:32

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Ok: It's on the Z:\ drive which I didn't define in my path ...

Reply 8 of 10, by Dominus

Posted on 2020-03-11, 17:50

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You should keep Z in your path settings, all internal programs are there.

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Reply 9 of 10, by lasitter

Posted on 2020-03-13, 19:48

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So I've been able to issue these commands successfully within DOSBox:

imgmount b: f:\imgmount\fd_1440.img -t floppy -fs fat
imgmake f:\imgmount\fd_1440.img -t fd_1440 -bat

From within DOSBox, I can view the directory contents of the b:\ drive, or run a DOS editor to edit a file (TEMP.TXT) on that disk. But when I run a particular DOS program that wants to generate a disk image on that disk image on that b:\, it gives me the message: "Diskette error - try another"

I get the same message with the USB attached A:\ FDD. And the system cannot see the virtual B:\ floppy. Probably something to do with the absence of the FILEDISK driver that was dropped from earlier versions of windows.

I licensed WinImage, and it does some nice things, and I'm investigating whether IMDISK by Olof Lagerkvist might help.

If you've any other ideas I'd appreciate hearing them!

Reply 10 of 10, by Jorpho

Posted on 2020-03-24, 19:00

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lasitter wrote on 2020-03-13, 19:48:
From within DOSBox, I can view the directory contents of the b:\ drive, or run a DOS editor to edit a file (TEMP.TXT) on that disk. But when I run a particular DOS program that wants to generate a disk image on that disk image on that b:\, it gives me the message: "Diskette error - try another"

Why would you do that? Once you make changes to the disk, you can then use an external Windows program (like WinImage or the freeware rawritewin) to write fd_1440.img to a real floppy drive.

If you really something that requires low-level floppy drive access, you might want to consider PCem instead, or maybe even Bochs.

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