I have had occasion to use a virtual floppy disk drive for similar purpose - software key on a floppy (only) for a server with no floppy drive.
I didn't have access at short notice to a USB or parallel port fdd, so for speed I went virtual - I can't remember now what I used. It worked, though.
Google "virtual floppy disk".
On a slight tangent, I've also used virtual CD drives at home - very good for those pesky kids' games that insist on having themselves in the drive to play the game. I could mount 20 of the damn things simultaneously, so rarely had 4-year-olds needing to operate the physical CD drives! Saved a few accidents and CDs, I'm sure.
SD