Getting files to created Virtual Drive

[DrDaveCF]

I need to run some Motorola RSS software that is ancient. It is DOS based and very pure DOS at that. I have set up VirtualBox on a XP host. I have created a VM of DOS 6.22 with a 500 MB fixed space virtual hard drive but i am stumped as to how now I get the DOS program files over to the Virtual Drive and open the .exe from the C: command prompt. I have shared the file folder of the program but that is as far as I can get.
Thanks in advance.

[noteirak]

maybe create a floppy/cd image with your program and attach it to your VMs?

[mpack]

A floppy image is guaranteed to work, but only carries 1.44MB. Finding the right tool can be a bit of a problem too - floppy imagers are common. Those that will create raw uncompressed images of floppies from a collection of files - less so.

OTOH, tools for creating dataCD (a.k.a. ISO) images of collections of files are common, e.g. the excellent and free ImgBurn. You will however have to set up CD drivers in DOS for that to work.

Just to clarify:
You said you created a DOS 6.22 VM, did you succeed in installing DOS inside it, making a bootable hard disk?

[DrDaveCF]

Yes I did succeed in installing DOS 6.22 on the virtual hard drive. When I open the VM DOS opens to a C: prompt. I can do a dir command and see the DOS folder present with all of the DOS files. I have taken the DOS RSS software program folder which is very small and created a .img folder using image burn but I am stuck copying that to the virtual hard drive and actually opening the executable in the VM. The .img folder is currently on my XP host desktop.

[mpack]

ImgBurn creates CD images, not floppy images. To access a CD images contents the guest must be able to read CDs, and so far you have not confirmed that you have got that working. If you have it working then you simply mount the .ISO file in the guest.

Incidentally, I'm not sure what an .IMG file is - on PCs that does not designate any particular standard format that I'm aware of. If your intention is a virtual CD then the image needs to be in the plainest possible ISO format, that means no long filenames, no Joliet etc. Plain ISO 9660.

To be clear: the .IMG extension is recognized by VirtualBox as meaning a floppy image, but I wasn't aware that ImgBurn could create these? If your intention was a floppy image then please confirm that your floppy image file is exactly 1,474,560 bytes. If yes then you would mount it in the virtual floppy drive. You must know how to do that else you couldn't have installed DOS, as I presume you started from DOS setup floppies which also would have had to be mounted in the virtual floppy drive.

[DrDaveCF]

I did not start with DOS floppies disks. I think there lies the problem. I used an online tutorial that gave a link to the three DOS 6.22 floppies that had already been converted to .img. Therefore I never used my DOS 1.44 floppy disks. I believe I need to convert my radio rss program files which will fit on a floppy drive (it is only 978KB) to something virtual box can read. I am thinking that is an .img file. How do I do that if that is correct. When I installed DOS the setup files automatically installed the files from the virtual floppy drive and moved them to the vitual c: drive. Somehow I have to learn to transfer my program files to the new virtual hard drive so I can run the executable from dos and I should be good to go.

[mpack]

When I had similar problems getting data files into a really old OS - in my case it was DOS + Win3.1 - what I did was use another VM running a more modern OS. I mounted a blank .img file in the latter VM (copy any existing floppy .img to make a blank, then FAT format), then copied files from a shared folder into the "floppy". The prepared floppy can then be mounted in the DOS VM.

[Rootman]

You could create another VM with something else like XP and mount the DOS VM disk under it temporarily and copy the files to the DOS disk using it. This could be done by pulling the files directly from the host using shared folders or as discussed above creating an ISO file.

Alternately you could download a live CD version of a Linux distro and boot to your DOS VM using the Linux ISO and copy the files with either method above. You might have to increase the VMs memory to run the Linux live CD, you might also have to actually mount the DOS disk under the live OS, how depends on the OS. There are some small low memory Linux versions like Puppy Linux that should do the job.

[DrDaveCF]

What do I need to do to pull dos program files from my host drive to my dos vm virtual drive?

[Rootman]

What do I need to do to pull dos program files from my host drive to my dos vm virtual drive?

I still think that by creating another VM using a Windows OS and then temporarily mounting the DOS VM disk under it you can copy the said files to the DOS disk through a network share then shut down the Windows OS and then fire up the DOS VM your files will be there.

The other suggestion I gave should also work, get a live Linux OS ISO start it using the DOS VM (adjust memory amount up if needed for the live OS to work) You can then use the live Linux distro to copy the files from the host OS through a network share to the DOS disk. Adjust your memory back down (if changed) and tehn launch your DOS VM, the files will be there.

A third alternative is to find and configure network drivers for DOS and get a network connection up and copy the files over using this DOS session and remark out the drivers in autoexec.bat / config.sys once done. Either of the first 2 alternatives are probably easier.