Unsuccessful in attempting to setup VMs for Win98SE and Win 3.11

J

John Wedgeworth

Bit poster
Hey guys,

I'm currently running Snow Leopard on a 17" Mac Book Pro, and using Parallels 5, I have VMs for both Windows 7 and Windows XP (Windows 7 VM is being used heavily (this message, for instance, is being typed in Windows 7 using Opera), Windows XP VM is almost never used.) I have a smattering of old games that run on either Windows 98 and/or Windows 3.1, or MS DOS that I want to be able to play, and I have a few Windows 98 apps that I wouldn't mind being able to run again.

I have a DOS 5 ISO, a Win 3.1 ISO, and I made my own ISOs of Win 95, Win 98, and Win 98SE using CDs that I have. Trying to set up these virtual machines has been a nightmare, though. The only ISO that Parallels will recognize is the DOS 5 ISO, and as it turns out, this is not a DOS install ISO, but is more the emergency utility disk that allows you to do things like F-Disk. All of my ISOs are ISO, and not FDD, so I can't use them through the floppy drive. And even with Win 98SE, using both the actual disc, and the self-made ISO, the Parallels BIOS doesn't recognize it.

I had no troubles at all installing XP and 7, but I am just getting nowhere with these older installs. Since parallels actually lists them as VM options, I couldn't imagine that there's a situation where they simply will not work at all in Parallels (otherwise, why would they list them as options?)

What am I doing wrong, guys? Is there something else I need to have in order to make this work, such as a DOS 6.22 ISO? I found DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 ISOs avail via bit-torrent, but didn't download them as I have no legal right to them (I at least have other copies of DOS 5 and Win 3.1 on floppy which is why I felt justified to download those ISOs)

Please let me know, guys!

Thanks and God Bless!

-J
 
Hi John:

Could you be more specific regarding your ISOs? I am a trifle confused on how you are using them. I will venture the following notes in the hopes that they will be of service to you. If not, please reply with further details and I will try my best to help you proceed.

If you created ISOs of CDs, please note that they need to be mounted in the virtual CD-ROM drive of the Parallels VM, not the floppy drive. Do this by going to the "Configure... > Hardware" option for the VM that you have created and select the Optical drive. Then mount the disc. If this does not work, then there may be a problem with the ISO. Try using it on your mac or another computer to ensure that it is not corrupt. If there are problems with it, try to recreate the ISO using a different program.

For your "ISOs" of floppy discs, you should do the following to make the required .fdd images. Mount your floppy ISOs in MacOS and copy the files out of the ISOs onto your desktop. If you do not have ISOs, but instead have the original floppy discs, insert them in a floppy drive and transfer them to your Mac. Once they are safely on your Mac, open "Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility" and select the "New Image" option at the top of the Disk Utility window. In the window, give your new image a "save as" name, say "Win31D1". Then, change the format option to "MS-DOS". Next, change the size parameter to "Custom" > "1.44". The Mac will probably say the size is 1.4. That is OK. Now, click "Create". Close Disk Utility. Next, mount your new disc image, which will be a .dmg file, and drag and drop the files that came from your floppy disc to the mounted image (probably named "DISK IMAGE" unless you changed its default name. Now, eject the new .dmg image disc. Last, navigate to the folder containing the .dmg image you just made and populated with your floppy files. Once there, rename the disc image from "$$$$.dmg" to "$$$$.fdd", where $$$$ is the name you gave to the .dmg file. MacOS will warn you about changing the file extension type, but ignore it and click "Use .fdd". You now have your floppy image. Mount it in the VM's virtual floppy drive and proceed.
 
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