Make USB stick act as floppy drive

[dr.tikitimes]

I have a legacy program that writes files to A: drive.
However, my computer does not support a floopy.
Given that i can purchase an external floppy drive, just to save the time required to modify the program ( the company that wrote it is out of business) and cost, is there any way i can mount my usb stick as A: ?

Perhaps I am not succinct. But any advise would be appreciated.

 

[dr.tikitimes]

Corgy?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Could be wrong but i don't think you can force anything to the A: or B: drive unless its connected to the floppy connector.

 

[dr.tikitimes]

Yeah, I know you are right. But I had to give it a shot.

 

[nickbits]

Try using the SUBST command.

C:\Users\Nick>subst A: C:\temp

C:\Users\Nick>A:

A:\>dir
Volume in drive A has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 7E48-CE63

Directory of A:\

01/05/2010 10:03 AM <DIR> .
01/05/2010 10:03 AM <DIR> ..
01/05/2010 09:33 AM 77,910 a.htm
01/05/2010 09:31 AM 78,771 a.htm.bak
01/05/2010 09:45 AM 70,237 aa.htm
01/05/2010 09:36 AM <DIR> aa_files
01/05/2010 09:34 AM 85,115 b.htm
01/05/2010 09:33 AM 85,115 b.htm.bak
01/05/2010 09:38 AM 67,699 bb.htm
01/05/2010 09:37 AM 66,764 bb.htm.bak
01/05/2010 09:36 AM <DIR> bb_files
01/05/2010 09:40 AM 586,827 cc.mht
01/05/2010 10:16 AM 78,700 x.htm
01/05/2010 10:06 AM 72,535 y.htm
01/05/2010 10:05 AM 72,688 y.htm.bak
01/05/2010 10:04 AM 79,520 z.htm
12 File(s) 1,421,881 bytes
5 Dir(s) 56,011,771,904 bytes free

A:\>

 

[ElenaP]

You can try the following:
1. On the Start menu, right click "Computer"; select "Manage"
2. Navigate to "Disk Management"
3. Right click on the USB flash in the "Volume" column of the list; select "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
4. Select the current drive letter; click "Change".

 

[Harvey]

You need an old HP utility, originally released as SP27608.exe, that is no longer available from HP. You can find it on a number of sites by searching Google for that download, but I don't know which of them are free of malware. Here's a source for it as HPUSBBOOTTOOL.zip I know is clean. The zipped file contains:

* HP USB disk storage format tool V2.0.6 HPUSBFW.exe (renamed hpflash1.exe). This installs the Drive Key, the program that creates a bootable flash drive.

* A second compressed file that contains Command.com from DOS 7 (Win 98 SE) and boot files, such as a CD ROM driver, etc. required to do more than you'll need until you want to do more DOS tasks that may require them (see below).

1. Extract the files, and Install DriveKey, the utility that actually creates the bootable flash drive.

2. Place the added files in a folder under the installed program folder, C:\Program Files\DriveKey.

When you run DriveKey, it will prompt you for the location of your boot files. You then delete any DOS files you don't need and add any other DOS programs and files you want on your bootable drive. You can create "specialty" drives by making a folder that includes just the boot files and the DOS program files you want to use in a single folder and pointing to that folder to create the drive.

I've used these drives to run DOS versions of Ghost, Partition Magic and NTFSDOS, a utility that allows you to boot to DOS and read files on an NTFS formatted drive.

I have successfully formatted flash drives with DOS 7 and DOS 6.22. I have not been able to make it work with any version of DR-DOS. You can get boot files for other versions of DOS from bootdisk.com.

 

[pcgeek11]

Could be wrong but i don't think you can force anything to the A: or B: drive unless its connected to the floppy connector.

Sure you can Bootable CDs do it all the time by using a bootable floppy image written to the CD and emulating a floppy disk.

Or this may work: ( A virtual floppy disk )

http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

pcgeek11

 

[Intexity]

from what i understand you have to enter the bios and enable it to boot from other device, then have your bootable usb stick plugged in and restart

 

[dr.tikitimes]

Thanks for all input,
And thank you PCGEEK11, you nailed it.
Now everything is working fine.

 

[Raduque]

You need an old HP utility, originally released as SP27608.exe, that is no longer available from HP. You can find it on a number of sites by searching Google for that download, but I don't know which of them are free of malware. Here's a source for it as HPUSBBOOTTOOL.zip I know is clean. The zipped file contains:

* HP USB disk storage format tool V2.0.6 HPUSBFW.exe (renamed hpflash1.exe). This installs the Drive Key, the program that creates a bootable flash drive.

* A second compressed file that contains Command.com from DOS 7 (Win 98 SE) and boot files, such as a CD ROM driver, etc. required to do more than you'll need until you want to do more DOS tasks that may require them (see below).

1. Extract the files, and Install DriveKey, the utility that actually creates the bootable flash drive.

2. Place the added files in a folder under the installed program folder, C:\Program Files\DriveKey.

When you run DriveKey, it will prompt you for the location of your boot files. You then delete any DOS files you don't need and add any other DOS programs and files you want on your bootable drive. You can create "specialty" drives by making a folder that includes just the boot files and the DOS program files you want to use in a single folder and pointing to that folder to create the drive.

I've used these drives to run DOS versions of Ghost, Partition Magic and NTFSDOS, a utility that allows you to boot to DOS and read files on an NTFS formatted drive.

I have successfully formatted flash drives with DOS 7 and DOS 6.22. I have not been able to make it work with any version of DR-DOS. You can get boot files for other versions of DOS from bootdisk.com.

The OP needed to have a USB stick mount to A: in windows, not setup a bootable USB stick.

It looks like he got his issue solved using a virtual FDD.

 

[dr.tikitimes]

You are correct Raduque, that is what i did. Thanks to all.

 

[srichakradhar]

I've been trying to do the same thing you explained above, Harvey. I've downloaded the Drivekey and installed it. I've also downloaded the DOS 6.22 boot disk from bootdisk.com . I would like to install MS-DOS on my hard disk partition or at least boot it from the pendrive.. Can you please give more info on how you installed DOS7 ?? Thanks..

 

[srichakradhar]

You need an old HP utility, originally released as SP27608.exe, that is no longer available from HP. You can find it on a number of sites by searching Google for that download, but I don't know which of them are free of malware. Here's a source for it as HPUSBBOOTTOOL.zip I know is clean. The zipped file contains:

* HP USB disk storage format tool V2.0.6 HPUSBFW.exe (renamed hpflash1.exe). This installs the Drive Key, the program that creates a bootable flash drive.

* A second compressed file that contains Command.com from DOS 7 (Win 98 SE) and boot files, such as a CD ROM driver, etc. required to do more than you'll need until you want to do more DOS tasks that may require them (see below).

1. Extract the files, and Install DriveKey, the utility that actually creates the bootable flash drive.

2. Place the added files in a folder under the installed program folder, C:\Program Files\DriveKey.

When you run DriveKey, it will prompt you for the location of your boot files. You then delete any DOS files you don't need and add any other DOS programs and files you want on your bootable drive. You can create "specialty" drives by making a folder that includes just the boot files and the DOS program files you want to use in a single folder and pointing to that folder to create the drive.

I've used these drives to run DOS versions of Ghost, Partition Magic and NTFSDOS, a utility that allows you to boot to DOS and read files on an NTFS formatted drive.

I have successfully formatted flash drives with DOS 7 and DOS 6.22. I have not been able to make it work with any version of DR-DOS. You can get boot files for other versions of DOS from bootdisk.com.

I've been trying to do the same thing you explained above. I've downloaded the Drivekey and installed it. I've also downloaded the DOS 6.22 boot disk from bootdisk.com . I would like to install MS-DOS on my hard disk partition or at least boot it from the pendrive.. Can you please give more info on how you installed DOS7 ??