Dos and win 3.1 help

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by Parallels User, Oct 22, 2006.

  1. >>> Message has been deleted by the user <<<
     
  2. drtimhill

    drtimhill Member

    Messages:
    85
    1. You will need a bootable MSDOS floppy disk image to get started. Try www.bootdisk.com for images. Parallels can work with VFD and similar files (the file should be exactly 1.44MB in size, the same as an actual floppy).

    2. Then, create a new VM and choose MS-DOS as the OS. Edit the configuration and change the floppy settings so it points to your floppy disk image. Boot the VM and with luck the floppy disk image will boot to an "A:>" prompt (remember, you're on a floppy).

    3. Stop the VM and setup a new hard disk. Don't make it too big: 120MG will be fine. Click the Recreate... button and (important!) make sure you do NOT select "Expanding Disk" or you won't be able to mount the resulting disk image.

    4. Boot the VM again and use the normal MS-DOS "FDISK" and "FORMAT" commands to partition and then format the new virtual hard disk. Don't forget to use the "/S" switch during formatting to make the hard disk bootable. Once finished you should be able to boot the bare-bones hard disk image and get a "C:>" prompt.

    5. Now, stop the VM, locate the hard disk image file, and (temporarily) rename it from "foo.hdd" (or whatever it is called) to "foo.dmg" (i.e. change the file extension from ".hdd" to ".dmg"). Finder will warn about this: don't worry, go ahead and do it.

    6. Now (the magic). Double-click the "foo.dmg" file and watch your Mac mount it as a read-write volume. This is the trick: as long as you create a non-expanding virtual hard disk, then finder can mount it if its renamed.

    7. Now for the easy bit. Just use Finder to copy files and folders into the hard disk image. Create new folders as necessary. Create a "DOS" folder and copy the DOS binaries. Create a "WIN31.DSK" folder and create the Windows 3.1 install files. etc etc.

    8. Eject the disk image, and rename it back to "foo.hdd".

    9. Boot the DOS VM, and you should find everything ready to go. Tweak CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT as necessary. When you're happy, go into the WIN31.DSK directory and run SETUP to install Windows 3.1

    HTH,

    Tim
     
  3. toddritt

    toddritt Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Tim,

    I just wanted to thank you for your step-by-step tutorial since I just used it to install Windows 3.11 in Parallels on my Macbook. Much appreciated!

    Todd
     
  4. runic

    runic Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Thanks

    I'd mostly like to thank you for the mounting a plain .hdd tip. Had been wondering how to get a file onto my Windows 3.11 installation!
     

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