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VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:40 am
by Thunderbirds747
Hey there,
I have a problem with Virtual Floppy Drive, it doesn't copy my file (e.g. FLIGHT.exe).
I was looking into virtual drive A: to find that it's empty and doesn't show a dialogue called "A: Drive is unformatted. Format the drive'?"
Best Regards,
Tim from Russia

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 2:29 am
by alexfru
It would be nice to have more details, what you're doing and how.

The disk may not be recognized by DOS/Windows if its boot sector doesn't begin with a jump instruction.

In the mean time, you may want to try to create a floppy image with my mkimg144 and boot sector (BootProg).

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:46 am
by ~
If you are using 64-bit Windows or a version newer than Windows XP, you need to take special steps and use a very specific version of VFD for it to work.

Here is a video showing a good solution to make it work:
>> Run VFDWin Virtual Floppy Drive under Windows 7 x64 and x86 <<
Download VFDWin for Windows 7 from:
http://archive.org/download/VFDWin_Win7 ... 050404.zip


Unzip it.
Get dseo13b.exe from http://files.ngohq.com/ngo/dseo/dseo13b.exe or http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=dseo
Run dseo13b.exe and do the same that is shown in the video.
Install and activate the vfd64.sys driver (for 64-bit Windows 7) or vfd32.sys (for 32-bit Windows 7) from vfdwin.exe

Now you can use floppy images from Windows 7 as if they were real floppy drives.

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:28 am
by Thunderbirds747
I am using 32-bit Windows XP.

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:47 am
by Thunderbirds747
Here we go:
After I compiled the boot file and used the debug program (it is only supported by 32-bit OSes) and I have as well formatted the virtual floppy using the Format button
I opened the A: drive only to find that it is completely empty.
I tried to do this over and over again but it didn't work. It might have to deal with the Floppy driver or something.
FYI: I am using Windows XP (the 32-bit edition, not 64-bit) Service Pack 3
When I run Bochs it says: "NO BOOTABLE DEVICE".
Any suggestions?

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:54 am
by Thunderbirds747
Plus I'm new to operating systems, so here's my boot code

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:50 am
by Octocontrabass
The boot sector is not a file on the filesystem. Copying your boot code to the boot sector using debug will not make any files appear on the disk. Formatting the disk removes your boot code.

Are you sure Bochs is configured to load your disk?

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:02 pm
by Thunderbirds747
Yes, it's mapped to A:

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:39 am
by Octocontrabass
So, if you put some other bootable disk in your virtual floppy drive, Bochs is able to boot from it?

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:43 am
by Thunderbirds747
No.

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:59 am
by Octocontrabass
So Bochs can't boot any disk, even ones that you know should work (e.g. DOS boot floppy)?

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:36 am
by Thunderbirds747
Oh, and it might have to deal with the system, not VFD or Bochs.

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 4:45 am
by Thunderbirds747
On my dad's laptop it was fixed, but I'm not sure if it will work on my desktop

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:24 am
by Thunderbirds747
SOLVED! You just need to reinstall Windows and preferably use VMWare to emulate a programming VM.

Re: VFD not copying file to floppy

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:26 am
by Thunderbirds747
No need to continue with this topic anymore. You may close the topic.