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Old MS-DOS software needs to read/write data into 3.5" floppy disks.

Hi EE,

I still use a very old software (20 years now) that runs via MS-DOS command prompt. The software is not commercially available and since then it was not updated for Windows
platforms.

In order to run the program nowadays I have first to plug an 3.5" external USB floppy disk drive to my PC. This is so because once that I run the program it automatically writes and retrieves data in or from the floppy disk at intervals depending on the process.

One relevant information is that the MS-DOS software asks for a floppy disk with a specific volume name (Mydisk123).

I have been wondering if there is a way to avoid the use of 3.5" floppy disks.

For example: is there a way to configure a USB port as the "A" drive, and have a USB memory plugged there, so that when the program wants to read/write on drive "A" it does it on the USB memory?

As explained above, I don´t have the means to reach the person that 20+ years ago wrote the source program and compiled it into an exe file.  

Thanks.
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pgm554
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capterdi

ASKER

Great!

Three options to choose from.

Thanks.
If it does just want an A: drive just change the drive letter allocated to your usb key or create a small hard drive partition and allocate i that drive and name.

you may also want to consider dosbox or running it in 'winodows xp mode' -downloadable which is microsoft virtual pc running preconfigured win xp, or using vmware player say.  with those you can map  a floppy drive,  cd etc. to a file instead.

good luck with it, find this sort of thing a lot with lots of older companies unwilling to let the old stuff go.
Thank you dragon-it.