Floppy drive not functioning MS-DOS 6.22

[daltonv]

Hello,
I want to transfer some files to my MS-DOS guest, but every way I have tried doesn't work. The first logical thing I thought of to do was to mount an .img with my files into the floppy disk drive, but whenever I do that I get "General failure reading drive A: Abort, Retry, Fail?" This happens with everything except the 3 img's for installation, which I can see just fine in drive A. I used ImgBurn to create the .img file, will it just not work if I do that? I also tried to mount an iso to the cd drive, but I got the same result. Any suggestions on how I can make this work?

[mpack]

I don't recall that ImgBurn supports creating floppy images, I just don't remember seeing that option. If you were to copy the contents of a floppy it would create a CD image (i.e. an ISO). Google for rawrite (or rawwrite), ISTR that's what I used.

DOS 6.22 will read from CDs if you install the appropriate drivers - see the howto area for setting up DOS guests.

[daltonv]

I don't recall that ImgBurn supports creating floppy images, I just don't remember seeing that option. If you were to copy the contents of a floppy it would create a CD image (i.e. an ISO). Google for rawrite (or rawwrite), ISTR that's what I used.

DOS 6.22 will read from CDs if you install the appropriate drivers - see the howto area for setting up DOS guests.

Ok thank you, I installed the cd drivers and it could read the files in the iso. But I have a question: why was I able to mount the driver img to the floppy drive, but not the one I created from the folder I had? Is there something else required besides just making any old .img file?

[dlharper]

But I have a question: why was I able to mount the driver img to the floppy drive, but not the one I created from the folder I had? Is there something else required besides just making any old .img file?

It must be possible for the img file to be interpreted as a disk image. This will depend on such things as the exact size of the file.

[mpack]

But I have a question: why was I able to mount the driver img to the floppy drive, but not the one I created from the folder I had?

In short: you can't put a CD in a floppy drive.

ImgBurn creates CDs, unless there's that option I missed.

[Raven]

http://bootcd.narod.ru/fd001440.zip
is a usable floppy image. You can reformat it after loading it into your guest's floppy drive.

[mpack]

Thanks for trying to be helpful, but the reason I didn't suggest something similar is that it doesn't actually help.

The OP is trying to copy files to a guest OS that doesn't support GAs or USB. There are several ways to do it, but if the floppy method is used then he needs a tool which works on the host and allows him to pack host files into a floppy image which can then be accessed by the guest. A preprepared floppy image can only be used in the guest, it can't be manipulated by the host with commonly available tools. Anyway, if a disk image was needed there's no need to download one - he could have made his own at any time by copying one of his working images and deleting the contents.

Personally, I think the best solution is to install CD drivers in the DOS guest, as the OP has in fact done. CD (ISO) imaging tools are readily available for all modern OS's, and provided you stick to basic ISO-9660 (no Joliet etc), they should be perfectly readable in DOS.

[dlharper]

I know it is long-winded, but you can do it using another VM.

If you create a VM that does support GAs, say an XP one, then you can use shared folders to copy the files to that. Then connect an existing floppy image to this VM, and copy the files onto it.

I have done this, but the occasions when it is the preferable are few and far between. It is usually better to creat a CD as @mpack suggests. Or you can install MS Network Client on the DOS VM, but that takes rather a lot of memory.

[michaln]

Or you can install MS Network Client on the DOS VM, but that takes rather a lot of memory.

However, the network doesn't have to be started on boot... the only part that needs to be loaded on boot is IFSHLP.SYS, and that's not so big. The rest can be loaded only if/when needed (and then reboot the VM when you don't need networking/need the memory back).