The best way to boot DOS ???

[mat-industries]

I am still looking for a way to boot DOS properly. My main concern is to use Dos for BIOS flash functions.
In my opinion, an ISO is not suitable for this, because I always want to add new flash files and would have to create a new ISO every time.
In my opinion the best way would be to boot DOS from a VHD.
Has anyone already done that ???
The 2nd possibility would be to boot a DOS ISO, (RAM) and Ventoy mounts into the ISO-Boot a directory from the USB-Stick as DOS drive.

I found something interesting, maybe you can realize this with Ventoy. (The page is in german)

https://www.plop.at/de/vhdloader.html

If you have another idea, I would be very interested to hear how you solve it for you.

[Steve2926]

If you want to copy flash files onto the first partition, then DOS would also have to understand that filesystem.

Easy2Boot contains a FreeDOS .img file which can read the NTFS filesystem of the first partition so you just copy on the flash files and boot to FreeDOS.
It would be nice if ventoy could load .ima and .img bootable DOS images...

[GCMartin]

Couple of useful Ventoy sites

• Here
  
• and Here 2
  

Either can address your needs

Hope this is useful

[dgasaway]

I was able to boot FreeDOS from the Ultimate Boot CD using legacy boot.  However, even though it has a menu option to load a "USB Mass Storage" driver, it was unable to recognize the second thumb drive that I plugged in.  Perhaps you would have better success.

[mat-industries]

If you want to copy flash files onto the first partition, then DOS would also have to understand that filesystem.

Easy2Boot contains a FreeDOS .img file which can read the NTFS filesystem of the first partition so you just copy on the flash files and boot to FreeDOS.
It would be nice if ventoy could load .ima and .img bootable DOS images...

Hi Steve2926,

thank you for your hints, i will try easy2boot.
+1 to load .ima and .img DOS images, that would be great.

**EDIT**
I have take a look to easy2boot, but the file included is a .ima and no .img
So it won´t work

[mat-industries]

After a long search on the internet, I have at least found a workable solution.
On this website you can find an ISO that boots Dos 8 and an integrated NTFS driver that allows you to access the USB stick.
I would be grateful for further solutions. :-)
In my opinion a VHD would still be the best solution.

http://www.multiboot.ru/Multiboot%20Live%20CD.htm

[markm]

I use hdsentinel dos a lot to check hard drives on machines. I also have an extra partition created on my thumb drive, partly for situations like this. I run hdsentinel dos in memdisk mode with ventoy, at "a:\" dos prompt I type "c:\" to get to my spare partition with .exe files on it and run from there.

[mat-industries]

I use hdsentinel dos a lot to check hard drives on machines. I also have an extra partition created on my thumb drive, partly for situations like this. I run hdsentinel dos in memdisk mode with ventoy, at "a:\" dos prompt I type "c:\" to get to my spare partition with .exe files on it and run from there.

Hi markm,

thank you for your replay, i have tryed such a solution also.
This is a good solution, but you have to create a extra partition on your USB-Stick, and if you are update Ventoy, in my opinion this Partition get lost, right ???
In my opinion, a vhd will be the best solution, or boot from a img, but both of them seem currently impossible.
But maybe in future someone find a solution. :-)
Best regards,
Martin.

---

@longpanda,

maybe you have a solution, to mount a filesystem (.img, .vhd, ....) before loading a DOS-ISO.
That would be so great, i am sure there is a way, but i don´t know how.

Second and in my opinion better solution:

Maybe someone can create a vhd, in the vhd it will be start grub4dos, and after this, dos will start from the same vhd. (i am not sure, if this is possible with a fat16/fat32 partition)

I am curious if anyone has a solution.

[Midas]

@mat-industries:

Have you considered solutions using grubfm ISO (https://github.com/a1ive/grub2-filemanager/) discussed previously?

E.g.:

https://forums.ventoy.net/showthread.php?tid=540
https://forums.ventoy.net/showthread.php?tid=103

[mat-industries]

@Midas,

thank you for the links, i have read them, but in this posts there is no solution currently, that works.
But i take a look for it in future, maybe someone figure out, how to manage this. :-)