Writing a floppy image into a USB flash drive

Ashir

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Oct 5, 2011
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Ok, this is my case: I have the three install disks for MS-DOS 5.0 and I need to install it on a netbook, problem is the netbook only have USB ports so I can only install MS-DOS from USB.

Before you suggest it, NO, I can't use an external USB floppy drive, I have to write the floppy image (.IMG) into the USB flash drive so when the netbook starts could boot by the USB flash drive and start the install.

I did try the obvious, I extract the IMG image into the flash drive and try to boot, didn't work, no boot.

I try to write tht IMG image into the flash drive using Win32DiskImager... that actually write the image but for some strange reason the netbook still doesn't boot.

I then try making a VMWare virtual machine, installing MS-DOS 5.0, use duse to get USB support on DOS so I could make a SYS on the USB flash drive an then re extract the contents of the IMG on the floppy drive, but duse refuses to work as intended,when I plug the USB flash drive I got "failed to load usb storage device". I think I'm not fully understanding how load the usbaspi.sys driver with duse under a no EMM386 DOS enviroment.

I tested the IMG images and they work when used on a virtual machine or when writed on a physical floppy disk. I tested the USB flash drive and it works as intended. I also tested the netbook's USB ports, and they work and can boot.

So, I'm out of ideas and open to suggestions.

How can I install MD-DOS 5.0 on a netbook using a USB flash drive?
How can I write a floppy IMG image on a USB flash drive?

Thanks in advance.