I'm about to take delivery on a new computer that has no 3.5" floppy
drive, but I have an old program on four floppy disks that I want to
install on the new unit. I assume that what I need to do is copy those
four disks onto a CD, but how should I go about doing that such that,
when I insert that CD into the new computer, the program will install?
When installing from the floppies, I would get a "now insert disk #2"
and so forth through all four disks. How do I construct the CD in
order to enable this sequence, and should I use a read only CD or a
Read-Write CD? |
Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
19 Oct 2006 14:27 PDT
nautico...
As myoarin notes, you can install the floppy drive from the old
computer onto the new one. It's not really complicated, and I
can probably find a tutorial on how to do so on the web.
Another option I've seen is that many older programs available
on the internet used to be on floppies. When you download the
zipfile and open it, it creates a directory structure in
Windows Explorer with the main setup executable in the main
folder, and subfolders labelled 'disk1', 'disk2', etc.
When you click on the executable, it finds the files it needs
in the subdirectories. I'm not sure if it's built into the
installation files to look for those directories, or if the
program automatically does so, but you could try it. At the
worst, you may get an error message saying that the program
can't find disk2 to locate a certain file. Hopefully, a
dialog will give you the opportunity to navigate to that
file in the disk2 subdirectory on the hard drive or the CD.
Theoretically, if this works on your hard drive, it would
also work from a CD.
Let me know where this takes you...
sublime1-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
nautico-ga
on
19 Oct 2006 15:27 PDT
"It's not really complicated, and I can probably find a tutorial on
how to do so on the web."
Please do!
|
Clarification of Question by
nautico-ga
on
20 Oct 2006 00:47 PDT
I believe I've solved the problem. I simply copied the four 3.5"
program disks to four similarly numbered CD-Rs.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
20 Oct 2006 00:59 PDT
Hi nautico...
Here's one from About.com that has some good images. Just take
note of how you go about removing the floppy drive from the
old computer (there are only two cables - the power cable and
the IDE cable). Notice that the broad IDE cable for the floppy
drive plugs into the motherboard right next to the similar
cable(s) for the hard drive(s). This will be the same on the
new computer, as well:
http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/ss/DIYFloppy.htm
If this takes you where you need to be, let me know and I'll
post a formal answer. Otherwise, ask away...
sublime1-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
nautico-ga
on
21 Oct 2006 03:52 PDT
Copying each of the 3.5" disks to CDs didn't work. Received following
error message immediately on running the startup.exe file:
Tried to create an invalid path using 'D:\' and 'ccwin.ex_'
I do not want to remove the floppy drive from the other computer.
There must be some way to make the CDs and the D:\ drive imitate the
behavior of floppies in an A:\ drive.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
21 Oct 2006 12:24 PDT
nautico
It sounds like the paths are written into the setup files,
and you'd have to hack the setup files to rewrite the paths.
These paths *might* traditionally be in an .inf file or an
.ini file, but could conceivably be elsewhere.
I think it would be easier to install a new floppy drive
than to bother with hacking the files. A new drive costs
about $10.
sublime1-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
nautico-ga
on
21 Oct 2006 15:02 PDT
Sublime, that all too complicated for me. I give up. :(
|
