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Attach a Floppy Disk Drive in Windows Virtual PC AND Repair a Floppy Disk in Windows 7 with SpinRite!

Have you ever had an exceptionally valuable Floppy Disk that can't be read in Windows?
Perhaps you want to run a Windows Virtual Machine but can't attach a USB/Physical Floppy Disk Drive to the Windows 7 Virtual PC? (Usually only CDROM drives and CDROM ISOs are allowed).
Or Maybe you want to repair a diskette but the write protect tab is forced into protect mode? (So you can't write or repair a Retail Floppy Disk?)

Are you scratching your hair out panicking what to do with that valuable floppy?

Fear Not! All of your answers are here!

    This guide covers four topics:
  1. Attach a Physical Floppy Disk Drive into Windows 7's Virtual PC (Like the XP Mode Virtual PC); (As Windows Virtual PC no longer offers Floppy Disk Drive attachments in the UI, you need this step to enable support!
  2. Create a Virtual Machine to run SpinRite in Windows (Virtual PC) such as Windows 7 XP Mode/Virtual PC 2007/Virtual PC, all from Microsoft.
  3. Over-ride a floppy disk Write-Protect tab to enable Windows CHKDSK or preferably the more advanced SpinRite program to repair a floppy disk;
  4. Boot up SpinRite in a Virtual Machine in Windows to repair a floppy disk to enable Windows CHKDSK or preferably the more advanced SpinRite program to repair a floppy disk;

So, read on for this free advise to over-ride the write-protect tab on a floppy, repair a floppy with SpinRite and Attach a Virtual Floppy Disk Image or Physical Floppy Disk Drive in Microsoft's Virtual PC!


This guide is a best effort to assist you with data recovery as well as floppy drive access in Virtual PC. Guru Guy is not responsible for any data loss, should you be unlucky enough to encounter this, when taking advice from our website. But if you're floppy disk is dead, what do you have to lose, right?

Pre-requisites:

  • An Internal Physical or USB Floppy Disk Drive (or VFD file if you just want to attach a pre-imaged 3.5" floppy disk to Windows Virtual Machine).
  • The Retail Floppy Disk if you're attempting to repair a disk or attach a floppy disk drive to Windows Virtual PC
  • Windows Virtual PC (It's free). (This enables booting of SpinRite in a Virtual Machine. Or just to run a virtual machine in which you wish to attach the USB/Physical Floppy Drive or the Virtual Floppy Disk image file (VFD)
  • Windows Virtual PC VBS Script to inject Floppy Disk Drive Support (needed to run SpinRite on Floppy Disks in Windows) or attach the Virtual Floppy Disk image file (VFD) into a Virtual Machine).
  • SpinRite from Gibson Research Corporation. (This is the best Magnetic Media repair product on the Planet! Primarily designed for Magnetic Hard Disk Drive Error repairs, maintenance and recovery, it also works on Floppies!). If you can't afford GRC's fantastic SpinRite tool, a lower-grade standard file-system with basic sector recovery alternative is Windows' built-in CHKDSK.



Step-by-Step instructions

Assuming you’ve got hold of the pre-requisites above, continue below for:

Create a Virtual Machine to run SpinRite for diskette repair.
  1. Once Windows Virtual PC (Windows 7) or Virtual PC 2007 (Windows XP) is installed, create a new Virtual Machine as per below.
    Please note, if you already have an existing Virtual PC that you wish to use to attach your Floppy Disk Drive or Virtual Floppy Disk file, skip step 1).
    • Click from the Start Menu "Windows Virtual PC"
    • In Windows 7, a "Virtual Machines" Windows Explorer Window appears;
    • Click "Create Virtual Machine" as pictured below:
    • Name your Virtual Machine something helpful and descriptive to what you want it for. In Guru Guy's example (and script reference), we've named the VM "SpinRite" and click "Next".
    • Enter anything about 32MB of RAM. SpinRite Doesn't use much. Of course, if you're using this VM for an O/S then you want at least 512MB of RAM, preferably more. Click "Next"
    • For the Hard Disk type to attach to the VM, select "Dynamically Expanding" if you are just using this for SpinRite, we will remove the hard disk next anyway. If you are creating a VM for an Operating System, Dynamically expanding will create a small file on your drive and will increase in size as you install and add files within the VM. Great for space efficiency, not so good in the long-term for performance as it gets fragmented on your host computer.
    • Click Create and you've created a Virtual Machine ready almost ready for SpinRite to be used in Windows...!
  2. In your Virtual Machines list, select your newly created file (in our demo it is called "SpinRite") with a left-click. DON'T DOUBLE CLICK IT here as it will start the virtual machine! Just a single left-click. Now whilst it's highlighted, click at the top "Settings" which will display a window like below:
  3. In the Settings of your VM, go to "Hard Disk 1" on the left hand-side. On the Right-hand site is the properties for the Virtual Hard Disk. If you are only using this Virtual Machine for SpinRite, click on the Hard Drive bullet option "None" to disable the Virtual Hard Disk. For SpinRite, there is no point in presenting a Hard Disk to it as you are not repairing a hard disk in this guide, you're repairing a Floppy Disk Drive.
    If you wish to run an O/S within the VM itself (and not just use this VM for SpinRite) skip the above instruction and leave as-is.
  4. If you wish to run SpinRite in this Virtual Machine, we need to attach the SpinRite ISO into your DVD Drive in the Virtual Machine. (Skip this step too if you are not intending on running SpinRite or attaching a DVD/CDROM ISO here.)

    • Buy SpinRite if you have not already done so and follow Gibson Research's SpinRite instructions to create an ISO Bootable SpinRite image file
    • In the Virtual Machine "DVD Drive" on the left-hand-side, click it to reveal the properties on the right-hand-side.
    • Click on the bullet option "Open an ISO Image File" and click on the Browse button next to it to link the SpinRite ISO file to your Virtual Machine here. This makes your Virtual Machine think it has a SpinRite CDROM inserted in it which is bootable).


  5. Depending on your intended uses of the Virtual Machine, if you followed all the steps above you should have something that looks like this as your VM Settings:
  6. Now Click "OK" to close the VM machine (named "SpinRite"). We are nearly there!


Attach a physical or virtual floppy disk to Windows Virtual PC
  1. Now we need to attach the Physical Floppy Disk Drive (or Virtual Floppy Disk Image) to our Virtual Machine, so that in this demonstration we can use "SpinRite" to repair a floppy disk.
    • Download the Guru Guy Visual Basic Floppy Disk Enabler Script for Windows Virtual PC, if not done so already. This ZIP file contains the command-let (CMD) file to execute the VBS Script.
    • Extract both files to a folder on your desktop.
    • Edit (if necessary) the CMD file "Floppy Support in Virtual PC" to reflect your Virtual Machine needs. By Default, the script will run:
      cscript Floppy_Support.vbs /vm:"SpinRite" /action:physical /floppy:a
      This Script runs the VBS file and executes it against the Virtual Machine "SpinRite" on your system. If you have a different VM you wish to run this against, change the reference in the CMD file and edit the part
      /VM:"YOUR_VIRTUAL_MACHINE_HERE"
      Also you may wish to modify the /action: command. "Physical" relates to an actual hardware drive on your system. So if you use a USB Floppy Disk Drive to which you want to use by SpinRite in the Virtual Machine, this should be a drive letter in Windows. Leave this as is. Otherwise, here is where you change it to your VFD file if you wish to use a Virtual Disk Image instead.
      Finally, you may wish to modify the /floppy: reference, as it is currently set to Drive Letter A. Change if your Floppy disk drive is a different letter.
  2. Now, run the command file "Floppy Support in Virtual PC".
  3. You should have confirmation that the Microsoft VBS script has applied the physical Floppy Drive A (or Virtual Floppy Disk Image) to your Virtual Machine!!!)
Now Let's Boot Up our SpinRite Virtual Machine on a Windows 7 computer to repair our floppy disk.
  1. Double-Click on your SpinRite Virtual Machine created and modified from the steps above.
  2. You'll see SpinRite start as it is booted from the "virtual DVD drive" (the SpinRite ISO file) as below:
  3. Insert Your floppy disk into your USB Drive that you wish to run SpinRite on. Note: You'll need to manually apply a fake "write protect disabler" on the disk if it is a protected retail disk. See the Guru Guy Floppy Enabler Guide below.
  4. Select the error recovery level. In this example, we are using "Level 2" for emergency data recovery.
  5. Now select the Floppy Drive from the SpinRite menu (which is now your USB Floppy Drive if you followed the Virtual Machine floppy drive VBS Script instructions above).
  6. Watch SpinRite get to work!
  7. If your Floppy Disk has major problems, you may see SpinRite invoke the "DynaStat Recovery" which re-reads sectors over and over again until it gets a clean read, before marking it off the disk and relocating the good data elsewhere.
  8. Be patient, this program takes a while to run, but it works magic indeed and is worth the wait...!
  9. You'll see various progress windows, and the screenshot below shows the sector recovery/status display of your Floppy Disk.
  10. Once its finished, you're finished! Just eject the floppy disk, turn of the Virtual Machine and you can try your diskette in Windows. Fingers crossed!
Guru Guy makes no promises to a 100% repair to your disk, nor can Guru Guy accept responsibility for third party programs, data loss (should you ever be unlucky enough to encounter this) etc. This guide is a best-effort approach to show the world what you can do when you have almost no other hope at recovering Floppy Disk Data! We hope you found it helpful!



Make your Floppy Disk Drive accept modifying/writing over a Write-Protect Diskette by disabling the "Write Protect" switch

This little quick guide shows you how to over-ride a write-protect switch without doing any permanent damage to your disk drive or disk itself.

  1. First, take your retail Floppy Disk and double-check you have no moveable Write-Protect tab, which you probably don't if you're reading this!
  2. Second, apply a small amount of cellotape over the write-protect window holes to fake a plastic tab that is usually present if you wish to write or more likely CHKDSK/SpinRite a floppy disk.
    This Picture shows how you can apply a small amount of cellotape over the window.
  3. Note NOT to apply too much cellotape as you don't want it getting stuck in the disk drive!
  4. Put your disk in and Voila! You can now read/write and modify a previously protected disk!


 

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