Search forum ... I think CANADACOW described working with HD images before...
In short:
1. Make a harddisc image (bximage utility from BOCHS)
2. Mount it using IMGMOUNT as not having system (I think it is -fs none - see README).
3. Boot from floppy
4. Use FDISK and FORMAT as normally in DOS on a new disc. You can format the HD for booting (parameter FORMAT c: /s ). Not all versions of these utilities work (but MS DOS 5 worked ok).
5. Mount the disc using IMGMOUT as disc with FAT (I think -fs fat )
6. Now you can use it/boot from it.

Use DiskExplorer ( http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA013937/editd … sk/index_e.html ) to copy things to and from the HD image (I think "VMWare plain format" should be used in the program).

Do not copy things from mounted directories when being in normal DOSBOX shell (it corrupts the image).

Mirek

But as soon as I boot, DOSBox is forgotten. I can only control a: and DOS thinks there aren't any other drives (even if I imgmounted them before booting).

Maybe in the future or so.
did you try swapping with ctrl-f4 ? (when mounting multiple images at the same time ?

Yes, my apologies, I did indeed see that thread. I attempted to use this, but dosbox seems to freeze at the "Starting MS-DOS screen..". This is when using a DOS 6.22 boot disk. I don't have one below that and couldn't find a boot image of one either, only exe files which I can't run in Linux. I did also try swapping with CTRL-F4 hoping the old DOS way of copying diskettes would work. Unfortunately I can't get rid of the dreaded "General failure reading Drive A" message until I swapped back to the a: image. Seems no way of copying system files over that way at all.

Ah ha, just figured it out. I pre-partitioned the previous disk image using Linux and set it to FAT12 type. That should be fine, but Dosbox seems not to like it. Just tried creating a new hard disk image without partitioning and it seems to of worked. Now fdisk unfortunately tells me "Runtime error, division by zero" 😉 Looks like this will need some work.

Thanks,

Pan

The WinME boot disk's fdisk program also fails in the same way.

Pan

Anonymous wrote:

But as soon as I boot, DOSBox is forgotten. I can only control a: and DOS thinks there aren't any other drives (even if I imgmounted them before booting).

You can get to IMGMOUNTed HD image... see what I wrote above about using HD images.
You cannot get to directories mounted by MOUNT ...

Mirek

I tried this:

1imgmount c floppy.img -t floppy
2boot boot.img

I know it's not a real hard drive, but it's still something...but it just won't see "c:".

I think what Mirekulza means is that the boot will only have access to the physical hard disk image. So mounting in drive in standard Dosbox fashion doesn't work. This more low-level approach worked for me though.

imgmount 2 harddisk.img -t none
boot floppy.img

fdisk could see the HD, but it immediately failed with a runtime error when I tried to partition it. I have a few ideas to try though.

Pan

Anonymous wrote:

I think what Mirekulza means is that the boot will only have access to the physical hard disk image. So mounting in drive in sta […]
Show full quote

I think what Mirekulza means is that the boot will only have access to the physical hard disk image. So mounting in drive in standard Dosbox fashion doesn't work. This more low-level approach worked for me though.

imgmount 2 harddisk.img -t none
boot floppy.img

fdisk could see the HD, but it immediately failed with a runtime error when I tried to partition it. I have a few ideas to try though.

Pan

You are right - I meant HD image. As for FDISK failing: FDISK from MS DOS 5 works ok (well, it crashes after everything is done, when it asks user for reboot - but that is not important).

Mirek

Just to conclude the side discussion about loading other floppies when booting:
Ok, so you say I can't use c: with floppies.

Now, I noticed this won't work

1boot boot.img -l b

c: only works for hard drives so a floppy must be booted in a:.
But...I noticed that it actually boots from both in a: and in b:
so every boot loads up two identical drives that I can switch between which (just try booting and then click "b:").

...which leads me to say that I can't also use this:

1imgmount b floppy.img -t floppy 
2boot boot.img 

Oh, just one minute after I posted it I finally get it...
See, the command "boot" can load a series of disks, but you've never said only the first one of them is the boot disk!
In other words, I've just tried this...

1boot bootable.img NOTbootable.img

and now I can switch between them with ctrl+f4!

I guess the side discussion about "boot + use floppies" was resolved.

Now we can return to "boot + use hard drives" or just directly "boot hard drives".

I guess my only problem with that is that I also need direct access to the files, which you said I should mount inside a hard drive image.

@Pan, how do you feel about expanding on the silly example listed at the bottom of this page? It would be a great help to those who have not "gotten it" yet 😀

Just hit the Edit button at the bottom of the page, and type away. You do not need to worry about making the example looking nice - I am sure someone will be able to improve on it later.

Looks like Pan did expand on the silly example. I did a little tidying up and here is the result 😀

Alright, the following (for a 6M image) didn't work:

1imgmount c harddisk.img -size 512,63,16,12 -t hdd -fs none
2boot msdos5.img
3a:\>fdisk
4I've then chosen 1 in each menu that came up ("primary", etc.)..

When it told me to put in a new disk and press enter, I've tried both accepting (and it got stuck) and just brutally shut of DOSBox.
And then:

1imgmount c harddisk.img -size 512,63,16,12 -t hdd -fs fat
2boot msdos5.img

...and DOSBOX just crashes and exists!

I did try to use the first code again and this time fdisk displays:
Partition => C: 1
Status => A
Type => PRI DOS
Volume Label => (none)
MBytes => 6
System => UNKNOWN
Usage => 100%

What's wrong?
Does it have anything to do with the "system unknown"?

In the beginning of the first code ("imgmount c") I meant "imgmount 2", of course.

Anonymous wrote:

When it told me to put in a new disk and press enter ...

??? What new disk?

This worked for me (I did it yesterday):
Both floppy and HD images were in d:\dosbox :
- c.img: 10 MB image made by bximage.exe from DOSBBOX
- msd50.ima - MS DOS 5 boot disk with FDISK, FORMAT

1. FDISKing
mount d: d:\dosbox
d: -- this line is IMHO useless (but I had it there so I reproduce it here)
imgmount 2 d:\c.img -size 512,63,16,20 -fs none
boot d:\msd50.ima
I started FDISK, created one primary partition, when leaving it asked to press a key to reboot and crashed instead of rebooting (not important FDISK alredy did its work)

2. FORMATTING
- the same as above, but running FORMAT C: /s
- no problems at all

3. Booting from harddisk
mount d: d:\dosbox
d: -- this line is IMHO useless (but I had it there so I reproduce it here)
imgmount c d:\c.img -size 512,63,16,20 -fs fat
boot -l c

Mirek

[quote mirekluza]
??? What new disk?
[/quote]
I just meant fdisk crashing after asking to reboot. Never mind.

Anyway, I realized the problem. I didn't know I should perform the imgmount with "-fs none" twice.
I thought I should already use "-fs fat" before formatting.

I tested your 3 parts method and you're right - it works.

To conclude this thing, can you tell me how come you've never used "-t hdd"?

And BTW, it did work with MS-DOS 6.22...

Anonymous wrote:

To conclude this thing, can you tell me how come you've never used "-t hdd"?

I think because it is a default for IMGMOUNT when nothing else is specified 😀

Mirek