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I am trying to create a Virtual PC (using Microsoft's Virtual PC app) that will run MS DOS 6.22. Yeah, I know, what a waste of time but I do have a use for it. I have created the Virtual PC in the app but now I need to load the OS to the VHD. I run the VPC and now I can "Select Floppy Image To Capture". This is asking for a file (*.vfd, *.img, *.ima, *.dsk).

This is where I run into a problem. I don't have a floppy dirve attached to this system (which would make all this irrelavant anyway) so I need to create these images from the source disks. I have another machine that has a floppy drive so I can make the images if only I knew how. And there is the question, how do you make floppy images suitable for a VPC?

(I realize this question might be better asked on SuperUser but I don't have access to it, sorry)

Craig
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  • The floppy images VPC uses are just raw images of a floppy disk (translation for unixheads: `dd if=/dev/fd0`), so no preparing should be required. – user1686 Jul 29 '09 at 19:26
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    "...but now I need to load the OS to the VHD." - are you sure this is going to work with self-made images? You might need to get either the images of actual MS-DOS installation disks, or at least the boot disk from http://bootdisk.com/ . (*why is it still illegal to link to software that old?*) – user1686 Jul 29 '09 at 19:32

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You can use a variety of tools to create floppy disk images. If your machine with the floppy drive is running Windows, grab a copy of WinImage and start making images. WinImage is fairly user friendly.

VirtualPC will read the images created by WinImage.

If you want to be able to work with the contents of floppy diskette images on your comptuer w/o a floppy drive, BTW, you'll like the virtual floppy drive driver available here.

Evan Anderson
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  • And once you install that, the first thing to do would be installing the DOS CD-ROM drivers. Second - installing Virtual Machine Additions. (They do exist for MS-DOS -- but you may need to google for "Virtual PC 2004 Additions"...) Third - if you manage to set up Additions - enable "folder sharing"; if not - install ImgBurn or a similar program, and learn how to create .iso CD images in it, as you'll soon want to move more data than fits to a 2.88 floppy image. – user1686 Jul 29 '09 at 19:24