DOS files and network problem - how to copy files

Hi. am a developer who uses DOS to program up hardware. Ideally, Parallels (P) should let me get the DOS virtual machine up and running and then drag n drop files to the desired directory. Of course this is not so. So I tried to set up a Network with the idea of transfering files off the (WinXP) hard drive, via the virtually created (P) network back to its own virtual DOS session. No, cant do that either. The only recourse I can think of is using a ISO utility to add desired files to the boot image. Surely this is not the case? I do not want to create an image of the desired hard drive, as its way too big I only need a directory of about 60Mb worth of files. Can someone educate me on this matter?
Cheers,
Alistair.
PS support surely you can address this issue; or confirm with me that you are going to do so in a later release. To program in a drag n drop feature between O/S surely would be of no major challenge?

 

Frustrating huh? I ended up enabling FTP sharing on the Mac and booted the Parallels VM w/ a Puppy Linux ISO (cuz it's fast and user friendly; Knoppix, floppy etc, also work.) Once booted I have access to my DOS drive and then FTP whatever files I need to it. A bit of a hassle but it works. For small files you can create a floppy IMG as well. ISO will probably work too but I wasn't having much luck creating them on MAC. Send me a message if you get networking and/or a dev environment working in DOS.

 

I would urge you to explore all of the other technologies that allow running more than one OS at a time and see which ones allow drag and drop between them before assuming that it is just another programming problem. I've used all but Virtual PC, and drag and drop stays on all of their wish lists. If you get networking going between the host and guest, the file managers in either of them can access and move files between them just as you have described. With windoze at least it is very unadvisable to keep data on the same partition as the operating system anyway, so a shared drive is the most logical method of common access to data. Having the OS on a virtual drive and shared data drives is the best way to share data among multiple machines - virtual or not - that's why all of the companies that I've seen use servers as file servers first.

Further, you can share any of the folders in a virtual machine's drive and move files between them now. You can move files between multiple virtual machines (running of course) and the host now from any of them. What else are you looking for?

 

documentation on file sharing

You mention being able to share folders on virtual machine drives and the host. I am using Workstation 2.1 on Windows. Don't see that documented in the user guide nor available anywhere on the user interface. How does one do the coyping?
Thanks in advance,
mhogarth

 

No replies from parallels support on copying from a DOS Parallels VM to native host Windows drives. Doesn't sound possible. I solved my own problem by doing the whole thing using the open source tool DosBox. Has a nifty way of 'mounting' a directory on the host drive as a DOS VM accessible drive through a simple command. Parallels should consider allowing such a thing (sharing among compatible OSs) through the same simple command. Worked like a charm -- and was free.

 

The way I got around it was to put all my stuff on CDR basically by moving the stuff off with a zip drive then made a CDR under MACOSX and copied the zip over to the CDR.

You can check my posts under "How Too" section to enable and get the CD drive to be recognized under DOS.

Believe me there is no support we are on our own here.

A problem I have with dos is that for some reason above 640K to 1M is filled with BS. The video takes up 128K and then an adapter and another 128K then the boot rom takes up the rest. This makes it impossible to load EMS and other stuff required to run real apps. I am looking over my dos stuff too see if I can deallocate a Frame Page from the Video memory and see if that helps me out.

Anyway... if you need help with anything email me.
Thanks
Gordon