DOSBox supports serial port passthrough, so it might work, but this is not the sort of thing that DOSBox was designed to do.

simong wrote:

But if started under Windows XP it proceeds normaly until the moment it tries writing on hard disk and is unable to create a directory.

Why don't you just fix this problem instead? If it's a permissions issue, all you need to do is run the program as a user with administrative privileges (or alternatively change the permissions of whatever folder the program is trying to write to).

Do you think that Dosbox will emulate the hard disk as if it was formated as before (let say Windows 98)?

I do not even understand the question. If you are planning to run Windows 98 in DOSBox, don't.

Thanks Jorpho,
The point is that nothing happens when it tries writting a directory where to store the program itself. I suspected that the format of the hard disk could be different. There was another format before FAT32 , I dont remember so far. What else could explain this ? Aniway thank you

Yes, Windows XP tends to use the NTFS filesystem, but there are very, very few programs that are fundamentally incompatible with NTFS, as generally the filesystem is dealt with at the OS level and a program will not normally know anything about the filesystem used on the hard drive. The only major exception is when there are permission issues.

FAT16 was generally used before Windows 98, but as you say the program worked fine under Windows 98, that will not make any difference.

This is very likely an issue with access permissions and nothing more.

I recall one Resident Evil didn't like NTFS...but I could be mistaken.

Realy, Y don't know anything about the way hard disk is accessed? This software is "Miracle piano Teaching System", developped by Mindscape International based in England. Here is the description link "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Piano_Teaching_System";
I Have the full documentation but no mention about the disk except disk . According to the doc, the system was designed forIBM PC 386 SX with MS-DOS release 3.1 or upper. Anyway I will continue trying Dosbox.
Thanks.

simong wrote:

Realy, Y don't know anything about the way hard disk is accessed?

There is something lost in translation here. When I wrote "a program will not normally know anything about the filesystem used on the hard drive", I mean that programs are not generally written to access the hard drive directly and will instead communicate only with the operating system, such that the program will run completely independently of whatever filesystem is used on the hard drive.

(I am not saying anything about what you know or what I know.)

if its permission issue you could try the Zeus NTFS Access

otherwise you can try running it on FAT32 formated USB flash drive.

this quite sily question, your XP isn't the 64 bit version right?