Installation Floppies - no drive

[John]

My mate needs to use a very old CAD package that he last used on his old PC.
His new PC has no floppy drive so I thought I would be able to help him by
copying them.
I loaded the prog onto my PC without any problem (it is on 3 floppies). I
copied the installation discs so that I could put it onto a USB Stick or CD.

I made him a CD - but he says that he can see the files - but when he clicks
the set-up it stops due to not being able to open a particular file.

What are the issues with this?

 

[BillW50]

In John typed on Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:18:27 +0100:

My mate needs to use a very old CAD package that he last used on his
old PC. His new PC has no floppy drive so I thought I would be able
to help him by copying them.
I loaded the prog onto my PC without any problem (it is on 3
floppies). I copied the installation discs so that I could put it
onto a USB Stick or CD.
I made him a CD - but he says that he can see the files - but when he
clicks the set-up it stops due to not being able to open a particular
file.
What are the issues with this?

Well how did you do it?

1) Dumped all files in one single folder?

2) Make folders like this:
a) Disk1
b) Disk2
c) Disk3

One or the other usually works.

 

[Big_Al]

My mate needs to use a very old CAD package that he last used on his old PC.
His new PC has no floppy drive so I thought I would be able to help him by
copying them.
I loaded the prog onto my PC without any problem (it is on 3 floppies). I
copied the installation discs so that I could put it onto a USB Stick or CD.

I made him a CD - but he says that he can see the files - but when he clicks
the set-up it stops due to not being able to open a particular file.

What are the issues with this?

I've had mixed luck putting several floppies on one media like a CD.
Sometimes if you copy all the files to one folder it works.
It really depends on the writer of the software. If there is a file
that is on all floppies lets say xxx.txt, then look at the data in it,
sometimes they put the same file on all floppies but change the content.
Its their way of detecting which floppy is in the drive. In which
case you're probably out of luck. Then again sometimes you can mess
with that type of file and get it to work. Its really a gamble.
I guess you could try putting each floppy on a different CDRW (for test)
See it it works like 3 floppies. A bit expensive, but.

 

[David B.]

There are some apps that will only install from the original floppies, worst
case go out and buy a $20 USB floppy drive.

 

[Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE,OE/WM]

My mate needs to use a very old CAD package that he last used on his old
PC. His new PC has no floppy drive so I thought I would be able to help
him by copying them.
I loaded the prog onto my PC without any problem (it is on 3 floppies). I
copied the installation discs so that I could put it onto a USB Stick or
CD.

I made him a CD - but he says that he can see the files - but when he
clicks the set-up it stops due to not being able to open a particular
file.

What are the issues with this?

David B.'s solution is probably best, or
Make a new folder for the program.
In that folder make folders Disk1, Disk2, and Disk3.
Copy the contents of each disk from the CD to the proper folder.
Make sure none of the files are Read Only.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "David B." <[email protected]>

| There are some apps that will only install from the original floppies, worst
| case go out and buy a $20 USB floppy drive.

| --

I agree. get a USB floppy drive.

 

[ju.c]

Get a free virtual floppy:

Virtual Floppy Drive 2.1
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html


ju.c