DOS disk images - how do I create them ?

Hello,
everyone,

does anyone here know a program to make images from DOS disks/disquettes which DOSBOX can use ? And how do I create them for the use with the DOSBOX emulator, anyway ?

Alrik

Unless you found out yourself already, here is a piece of software: Floppy Image. Also, WinImage should be able to do this. With a quick search I could not see any totally free program to create suitable image files, but these probably exist.

The important thing is to create them in IMG file format for DosBox. ISO is apparently also supported, but I think that it is more suitable as a CD/DVD image format.

To use them, you just mount them like any drive in DosBox with an assigned drive letter, but use the command imgmount instead of mount.

Useful info for using multiple floppy images at the same time in DosBox as well as the exact syntax of commands can be found here.

It's a pity that those old cool-looking game disks become useless as you cannot find many computers with floppy drives anymore. I just realized I don't have a floppy drive on mine either, but I can always use ancient machinery at work.

Ha, for the longest time, I included a floppy drive in my PC's. Just not necessary anymore… I don't think I've kept my floppies.

I have the 3.5" floppies but the pretty game boxes are about 3 000 km away at my parents' place. I should actually just send the boxes over by mail when going there the next time. Would probably be wiser than carrying the disks back, although they take a lot less space, which is why I left the boxes there in the first place…

I still do have a floppy drive (on my now "office computer" I even have a 5,25 drive !) … It's only that I want to have whole images of the floppies there, too …

I'm not quite sure about it because I haven't tried it out yet, but I think I've found an indirect solution : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825098

The only "problem" there is that I have to install the MS Virtual PC program to be able to use this feature … If I interpreted this description correctly …

I believe you can simply copy the complete floppy content to a directory on your hard disk and mount that directory as "a:" somewhere in the dosbox config file…

I must correct myself : The above linked way doesn't work.

@bkrueger : Yes, you are right in principle, but there are a few floppies I would like to save as an image, in part because of copy protection there.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I must correct myself : The above linked way doesn't work.

@bkrueger : Yes, you are right in principle, but there are a few floppies I would like to save as an image, in part because of copy protection there.

Ok, then you should really try something like floppy image (the URL goes to cnet) which is free.

Then you should look in the dosbox help how to mount it (imgmount, I assume).

Mounting isn't the problem. I know how to do it.
No, my problem is to create images from floppies in the first place, for example from my re-discovered DOS floppies, in order to preserve them for later virtual PCs …

I'm not sure about it, but this doesn't look bad, either : http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite

I've used WinImage with a USB Floppy drive to image floppies before. Those were mountable in Virtual PC if I recall though we figured out better ways of avoiding the floppy drive. (Its amazes to me to think that large companies were still shipping licenses on floppies as of 2 years ago.)

I've been installing MS Virtual PC 2007 ( & 2004) next to my DOSBOX-Installation on my "gaming PC", and I've been installing DOS6.0 on 2 virtual PCS.
One got Windows 3-1, whereas the other one got Windows 3.0
The next thing I'll try is install Novell DOS 7. THis will be the third virtual PC.
Later I'll probably try installing Windows 3.1 on DOSBOX.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Later I'll probably try installing Windows 3.1 on DOSBOX.

Mind if I ask what you need Win3.1 for? I have seen others on the net who want to do the same, but I can only remember CivNet as a game that might have wanted Win 3.1 to work.

In the ancient times of transition from Win3.1 to Win95 I didn't have a PC on my own as I was a poor student, so I don't recall any particular problems that Windows NT wouldn't have fixed.

Lemmings worked on Win 3.1 also.

Just wanted to have a running system again.

I'm not after the "I don't want it if can't use it" philosophy - I'm too much of an archivist for that.

I just didn't remember anymore how it was - and yes, I used Win 3.1 until late ( ! ) of the 90s … I think I bought my first PC in 1999, if I remember correctly …

Apart from that : It's the old DOS games I'm after.

I have just zipped the entire floppy and used the subst command and mounted the subst drive in DOSBox. There are some disc image programs as others have mentioned, but I had already archived my old floppies by zipping the entire disc with pkzip 2.04 before they came along. I was archiving them to a QIC-80 drive back then after having a bad sector on one of my Wing Commander discs.

For example:
Unzip the floppy zip to a directory, d:\floppy
In a Windows command line
subst a: d:\floppy

In DOSBox
mount a a:\ -t floppy

The only time I have run into issues with that is when the drive expects a label - several games such as the Links courses and some Sierra games come to mind that look for the floppy disc label. In that case you need to know the label so when you mount it in DOSBox append the -label LABEL
mount a a:\ -t floppy -label DISK1
If you use the -$ switch when zipping a floppy, it preserves the volume label. It will show up as a 0 byte file when you look at the zip contents.

Another way is to simply copy the whole contents of the floppy disk into an own directory and then mount it via the mount command.

The last DOS version of PKZIP I know of is 2.04g, as far as I know.
I still own a fully registered version of that program, even with my own "origin stamp" (if I can find the program or/and the letter again).

Unfortunately Phil Katz died 11 ears ago : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz