If you mount the entire C:\ drive then you could delete any file on your hard drive. If you only mount a certain folder then only the files in that folder can be deleted in DosBox.

The reason I can think of is security. Old DOS programs weren't considerate of modern Windows files, so for example if don't Mount C C:\ you take away any chance a DOS program will accidentally delete your Windows XP files or something similar.

[edit] DOSFreak beat me..

There were people who happily mounted c:\ , installed Windows 3.x in DOSBOX and then wondered how they screwed up their normal Windows installation (of course if you mount c:\ then c:\windows in DOSBOX is the same directory as c:\windows in the real computer).

Of course we can take it as an intelligence test 😀 , but I guess that such people still deserve a warning..
On the other hand I am against blocking this possibility completely - it is usefull sometimes (no need to reinstall), just be carefull if you do that.

Mirek

Some people (like me) have their Windows installation on another drive 😀

How is it possible to install Windows in other drive than C: ?

No problems for me (so far), but I think it's a fair and necessary warning.

@ ChaosFish: Just choose another partition at installation time (NT, 2K, ...)
In that case Windows will only have its loader sitting at drive C.

ChaosFish wrote:

How is it possible to install Windows in other drive than C: ?

I think you can choose the directory (or at least it used to be possible) - when using "Custom installation" or whatever it is called these days...
But hardly anybody does that...

Of course W9x and NT/2000/XP have also something in boot sector, but it not important here (you will not get there from DOSBOX anyway). And even that can be solved with some boot manager. The only limitation I know of is the fact that W9x must be installed in the primary partition of the disc (other Windows version accept even extended partition).

Mirek