How to create a virtual floppy drive on Windows 7 64-bit

Question

I am trying to install a program which requires me to have a floppy disk in my machine while the installation is going on.

I found a program called Virtual Floppy Drive that allowed me to create the drive and copy files to it, but it only works on 32-bit systems.

When I try to run it on Windows 7 64-bit, it gives me an error saying the virtual drive can't run on 64-bit systems.

I also tried using the 'subst a: c:\myadrive' in the command prompt, and it does not work.

Is there another way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

The main download page for Virtual Floppy Drive is http://sourceforge.net/projects/vfd/. It supports Windows 7 64-bit.

But there are comments on the Sourceforge page it does not work in W7 64bit, one user (toantu) found a way and posted a comment further down.

1.) first copy the content of virtual floppy folder to c:\temp\

2.) download this tool dseo13b.exe install ... right click and choose run with administrator, select enable test mode, reboot run it again with administrator, select select sign a system file, type in c:\temp\vfd.sys

3.) go to c:\temp\ folder , right click vfd.exe, choose properties, go to compatibility tab, select run this program in compatibility mode for xp and also select run this as an administrator, select driver tab, select brownse, select vfd.sys, press install and start. go to drive0 tab, select change, choose A for your drive, OK Now select open/create, click create and hopefully your drive will be activated in win 7 64 bit you must run all of the above with administrator right by the way, and make sure you have 64bit version of 2 files vfd.dll" & "vfd.sys

Answer 2

You don't even need additional software for this. Create a folder called "a", share it, map it as a network drive to A:. No need for additional downloads. I have used this on a lot of legacy systems that need floppy drives to transfer license keys.

Answer 3

It seems to me that the question asks how to mount virtual images on 64-bit Windows systems, though not stated.

ImDisk accomplishes this result.

If your need is less complex, mounting A: to a folder would work fine.

Answer 4

Try ImDisk.

ImDisk is a virtual disk driver for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008. It can create virtual hard disk, floppy or CD/DVD drives using image files or system memory ... The install package works on Windows NT 3.51/NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions ... 64 bit drivers are now digitally signed with a certificate trusted by Microsoft. This means that ImDisk now works Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 even without running it testsigning mode.

Answer 5

If you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate you can use virtual Windows XP Mode to run 32-bit programs that do not run on 64-bit systems.

Any virtual machine, VirtualBox for example, can be used as well with a 32-bit virtual Windows environment.

Answer 6

You can use a virtual floppy drive (VFD), but you need to install it in a non-standard way. I've found a solution how to install it under Windows Vista x64, and I think the procedure for Windows 7 is similar.

Please, checkout the solution at Virtual floppy drive for Vista?.

Good luck.

Answer 7

You will need 2 files from here: http://levicki.net/articles/stories/2007/08/17/The_story_of_the_vfdwin_21_64-bit_driver_patch.php

i) Replace "vfd.dll" & "vfd.sys"

ii) Self Sign the Driver with the tool mentioned in the given link

iii) Reboot - Disable "Proper" Driver Signature Enforcement if you want it to be permanent:

bcdedit /set {current} testsigning off

iv) Start the Program- Install Driver

Answer 8

As was previously stated, imDisk does work with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I tried VFD, and it works great in 32-bit but does not work in 64-bit. I have even tried Critical0's fix and it doesn't work either, even though I am on an AMD machine. I am using a new six-core Black Edition CPU.

I tried imDisk, and it works great if you follow the directions to the letter. Do not venture off of his directions. Once you get the command prompt in administrator mode, you're good to go, and it will stay working from that point on.

Also, it runs it as a service, rather than via some icon on your desktop, I like that much better then VFD anyhow. This way, it's always there if I want it, and I can run more than two virtual floppies or even CDs/DVDs.

I used to use VFD all the time, so I know what I'm doing. I am a computer tech and an operating system creator, which is why I needed virtual floppies. From there, I can take the floppy image and use it on a CD or whatever I want from there to boot off of.

Answer 9

You can turn your USB thumb drive into drive A: by first disabling the floppy drive in your BIOS. Then going into disk management console and changing your USB thumb drive's letter to A:, Now you should be able to get by any programs forcing you to use drive A:.