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Virtual floppy for 8086?

J

JT64

Experienced Member
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Oct 21, 2008
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Sweden
Is there a program for virtual floppy that works on win 3.0 or win286?
I found VFD but i don't think it will run on anything older than win95.

Would it not be possible to create a small program that fool the computer to think that current directory is the floppy?

Many installation require you to make installation disks, and more over many of them want you to have a 1.44 drive.

It is to say the least troublesome, is there anyway around this problem, is it possible to fool a program to take installation from a directory by using some ingenious coding.

JT
 
just to get the obvious question out of the way first, have you tried SUBST?

Unless there are specific floppy bad sector checks or other protection sneakeries involved, just copying the files to a temp folder and then issuing "subst b: c:\temp" and then switching to the "b:" drive can work pretty well.

from a command prompt/shell, it should work under any version of windows (just tried it in XP and it worked fine)
 
Note that MS says, "Do not use the SUBST command when Windows is running," so you just may find unexpected behaviour under certain circumstances...
 
hargle said:
just to get the obvious question out of the way first, have you tried SUBST?

Unless there are specific floppy bad sector checks or other protection sneakeries involved, just copying the files to a temp folder and then issuing "subst b: c:\temp" and then switching to the "b:" drive can work pretty well.

from a command prompt/shell, it should work under any version of windows (just tried it in XP and it worked fine)
Click to expand...

Thank you very much!!! I will try right away.

Didn't even remember there was a subst command in DOS, i do not even know if it is a program or in command.com. But for sure i will checkit it out, will Dos 6.22 work.

JT
 
MikeS said:
Note that MS says, "Do not use the SUBST command when Windows is running," so you just may find unexpected behaviour under certain circumstances...
Click to expand...

too funny. considering subst.exe is included in every copy of windows, and is in the windows\system32 folder. how can you use it without windows running if it's part of system32? those crazy microsoft engineers.
 
You can google for ti101a.zip

It's a tsr floppy emulator which allow to use image files as floppy disk

It need xms but it come with its asm source code
I think it is possible to modify it to use only 8086 instruction and image from hd
 
StickByDos said:
You can google for ti101a.zip

It's a tsr floppy emulator which allow to use image files as floppy disk

It need xms but it come with its asm source code
I think it is possible to modify it to use only 8086 instruction and image from hd
Click to expand...

Just checked it; asm is already 808x. This should do what the OP needs; good suggestion.
 
I now read the documentation or TI101A seem like it is running as a ramdrive in XMS memory. So i guess it will not work on my XT.

I got another idea, could i use NFS to mount a remote floppy on my windows system?

This should work in practise?

Found this software.
T'soft nfs client for DOS
http://www.rawbandwidth.com/software/

JT
 
JT64 said:
I now read the documentation or TI101A seem like it is running as a ramdrive in XMS memory. So i guess it will not work on my XT.
Click to expand...

That's because a non-XMS program would use about all of the XT's memory, and at the same time, it won't have support for drives lardger than 360Kb.
 
per said:
That's because a non-XMS program would use about all of the XT's memory, and at the same time, it won't have support for drives lardger than 360Kb.
Click to expand...

I can not say i know anything about emulate a floppy but i am a little surprised to see it is implemented as a ramdrive, there must be better ways to simulate a floppy.

You don't have to load an ISO image into memory do you.
I can see it is a fast approach though.

JT
 
JT64 said:
I can not say i know anything about emulate a floppy but i am a little surprised to see it is implemented as a ramdrive, there must be better ways to simulate a floppy.

You don't have to load an ISO image into memory do you.
I can see it is a fast approach though.

JT
Click to expand...

Well, regarding that the image might be loacted on an actual floppydisk and loaded partwise, reads and writes to the virtual drive will be horrible slow!
 
JT64 said:
Is there a program for virtual floppy that works on win 3.0 or win286?
I found VFD but i don't think it will run on anything older than win95.
Click to expand...

Instead of looking for an answer to this question, what problem are you trying to solve? Ie. what do you want to do that you're looking for help? For example, are you trying to install software from diskette images because you have no floppy drive in the system or something?
 
Trixter said:
Instead of looking for an answer to this question, what problem are you trying to solve? Ie. what do you want to do that you're looking for help? For example, are you trying to install software from diskette images because you have no floppy drive in the system or something?
Click to expand...

Basically i am moving "programs files and folders" and img on a CF to the XT, problem is many refuse to install without residing on a floppy.

I was thinking of installing freedos, but it seem to rest on an ISO image, i just realised the virtual cd program i downloaded only work on a 386.

Of course i can extract the images to a folder and move to the CF problem is many programs, will not run happy installation from folders or with the use of subst.

So basically i want to be able to be able to install from folders or use both floppy and CD images without a CD and floppy driver.

JT
 
Problem with subst is that extracted files resides in many folders it would be possible to copy all installation files to one directory before start to install and hope the program do not care.

I tried to extract and install Dr Dos using that approach.
Problem was that the system files was hidden using VFD on my XT and i could not see any option to make them visible. I could have written a copy with diskimage and then copied from floppy to CF folder, but i am desperatly trying to get away from floppy use, and that is my main point.

Here is my ranked solution for XT

1. Floppy and cd emulation

2. Extraction to folder on new machine i found VFD useful for floppies and ISObuster for CDs however using VFD the sys files vanish and i do not think VFD is write enabled,
Copy image content to directory/folder and then using subst to enable installation.

3. Getting hold of a Matsush CD rom and an IO-card and buy floppydrive supportiing 1.44 disk i do not beleive that my onboard IO support other then 720.

4. If you have better approaches hola me.

JT
 
JT64 said:
Problem with subst is that extracted files resides in many folders it would be possible to copy all installation files to one directory before start to install and hope the program do not care.

I tried to extract and install Dr Dos using that approach.
Problem was that the system files was hidden using VFD on my XT and i could not see any option to make them visible. I could have written a copy with diskimage and then copied from floppy to CF folder, but i am desperatly trying to get away from floppy use, and that is my main point.

Here is my ranked solution for XT

1. Floppy and cd emulation

2. Extraction to folder on new machine i found VFD useful for floppies and ISObuster for CDs however using VFD the sys files vanish and i do not think VFD is write enabled,
Copy image content to directory/folder and then using subst to enable installation.

3. Getting hold of a Matsush CD rom and an IO-card and buy floppydrive supportiing 1.44 disk i do not beleive that my onboard IO support other then 720.

4. If you have better approaches hola me.

JT
Click to expand...

1. Use VFD on your new computer and open a CMD window
2. Make sure you have a right sized floppy in drive A:
3. Type "DISKCOPY B: A: /V" (regarding you have set VFD to drive B)
4. Boot a computer that has a DD 5.25" and a 3.5" drive (boot with the disk you just made). Exit the installation program if it starts
5. Make sure you got a DD floppy in the DD 5.25" disk drive
6. Type "FORMAT B: /f:360 /S"
7. then copy the files you need for the instalation onto the 360Kb disk

You should now be able to boot the 360Kb disk on your XT and maybe start the installaton.
 
JT64 said:
Basically i am moving "programs files and folders" and img on a CF to the XT, problem is many refuse to install without residing on a floppy.
Click to expand...

Unless the install program requires reading of a disk label, you can easily do this via the SUBST command, like "subst a: c:\stuff\to\install\disk1". When done, "subst /d a:" will undo it.

For multiple disks, I just copy them all into the same directory. This doesn't work if one file overwrites another (ie. there is a "disk.id" file on each disk). But for 90% of everything, it works fine.
 
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