To read data from a floppy disk to a virtual machine, you must create a disk image that the virtual machine can recognize.

Some operating systems require you to use floppy disks to install them. Because the Mac does not include a physical floppy drive, and because Fusion supports floppy images only, you must use a USB floppy drive to create floppy images.

The Apple Disk Utility can create floppy disk images for this purpose.

Procedure

  1. Attach a USB floppy drive to your Mac.
  2. Start the Mac Disk Utility by going to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility on your Mac.
  3. Insert the floppy disk for which you need an image.
  4. In the Disk Utility window, select the floppy disk and click New Image.
  5. In the Image Format pop-up menu, select read/write.
  6. In the Encryption pop-up menu, select None.
  7. Save the floppy disk image to the chosen location.
  8. In the Finder, right-click on the created floppy image and select Get Info.
  9. In Name & Extension, change the file extension from .dmg to .flp and close the Get Info window.

    Confirm the change when prompted.

  10. (Optional) Repeat the process for each floppy disk to create.

What to do next

To attach the images to a virtual machine, see Connect and Set Up a Floppy Device.